Dearborn - Ford's electric vehicle sales more than doubled last year in the US, fortifying its position as the second biggest EV maker behind Tesla.
The Dearborn, Michigan-based carmaker sold 61 575 EVs last year, a 126% surge as it debuted the F-150 Lightning plug-in pick-up and E-Transit van. Ford's overall US light-vehicle sales fell 2.2% to 1 850 925, according to a statement released last week, but that was still enough to give the company a small market share gain of 0.7 percentage points.
Electric vehicles accounted for 3.3% of Ford's sales last year, but Chief Executive Officer Jim Farley has plans for the company to be producing 2 million EVs a year by the end of 2026, and he's spending $50 billion (R848 billion) to roll out battery-powered models.
Ford is also planning to launch four new electric vehicles in Europe by 2024, and at least two of these will be based on VW’s MEB platform as a further extension of the partnership between the two carmakers.
Strong sales of Bronco SUVs in the US helped partially offset a 9.9% decline in F-Series pick-up sales last year. Ford said it has sold 15 617 electric versions of the F-150 since it went on sale in May, making it the best-selling electric pick-up on the market.
Sales of the electric Mustang Mach-E rose 45% to 39 458 units, closing in on the petrol-powered coupe pony car that generated 47 566 sales last year, down 9.2%.
Ford's share gain last year "came from broad-based growth from our SUV line-up and our all-new EVs growing at twice the rate of the overall EV segment," Andrew Frick, vice president of sales, distribution and trucks, said in the statement.
Rival General Motors, the top overall seller of vehicles in the US last year, sold about 39 000 EVs.
IOL & Bloomberg