Ford had plenty of good news to report for May as SUVs and F-150 fullsize pickups soared, helping it log a 2.2% overall sales gain despite flagging car sales down 10%.
One extra sales day this year boosted year-over-year comparisons though, and Ford sold 2.4% fewer vehicles in May on a daily selling-rate basis, according to WardsAuto data.
The consumer shift to CUVs continues to take its toll on all car sales at Ford, but stronger sales in the higher profit segments clearly spell better news for the automaker’s bottom line.
“May marked a standout month for Ford brand SUVs, with a May record 74,910 SUVs sold. Plus, we continued to see strong F-Series performance, with sales and share rising this year, along with average transaction pricing. In May, overall F-Series sales were up double digits and transaction prices grew $3,300 per truck,” says Mark LaNeve, vice president-U.S. Marketing, Sales and Service.
Ford Explorer sales increased 20.7%, with 22,715 deliveries making it the best May performance in 13 years, the automaker says. Expedition sales were up 13.9% and Ford Edge deliveries rose 11% as well.
Lincoln retail sales marked another bright spot, up 9.7%.
And even though car sales continue to flag, they are not off as much as last month and incentive spending is down LeNeve says.
On the down side of the ledger, higher-profit retail sales were off 0.8% while low-margin fleet sales rose 8.4% compared with year ago.
The overall good news has Ford officials sticking with their optimistic prediction of 17.7 million industry sales in the U.S. for the full year with the expectation sales will pick up more steam in the latter half of 2017.
