Ford F-150 Lightning Sales Disaster

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Ford posted its August US sales numbers. There was every reason for the No.2 American car company to be happy. Units rose 13.4% to 182,985. However, sales of its EV flagship F-150 Lighting were terrible, even though they rose compared to the same month last year.

Sales of the F-Series rose 11.7% to 70,701, which was 38% of the Ford total for the month. Lightning sales rose 160.7%, but the percentage did not matter. Total sales for the vehicle were 2,654 or 89 a day nationwide.

Ford management often said that Ford would be the US EV leader. This implied it would move ahead of Tesla. Management said Ford’s total investment would be over $30 billion. Quarter after quarter, Ford has lost billions of dollars on its attempts. It has throttled back considerably, and it would be surprising if Ford sold 100,000 EV cars and light trucks this year.

Ford is not alone. Today, Volvo said its EV plans had been too ambitious, and earlier this week, VW said the same.

As the industry adjusts itself to a market in which EVs have sold poorly recently, Ford has moved its marketing and a portion of its success to hybrids. This is where the industry will be stalled for several years.

Lighting will go down in auto industry history as one of its major failures.