Ford Motor posted strong sales for August as they rose 27.3% to 158,008, The figure was particularly impressive because supply chain challenges have curtailed the number of vehicles manufacturers can make to satisfy demand.

Ford’s announcement put its EVs front and center. That was a head fake. Sales of the new Ford F-150 Lightning have only been 6,842 this year. That is against total F-series sales of 420,969 for the same period. Mustang Mach-E, Ford’s other flagship EV, posted only 25,765 unit sales, a tiny fraction of the year to date Ford total.

There was bad news in the report. Ford F-series sales have fallen 10.7% this year. So far in 2022, F-series sales are 36% of Ford’s total. It cannot afford for these sales to tumble.

Ford regularly makes the point that the F-series handily outsells its rivals, the Chevy Silverado and Ram. This is another reason to worry F-series sales have fallen. Ford needs to keep its sales advantage intact.

Presumably, F-series sales have been held back by supply chain problems. This means demand is healthy. However, when people cannot buy one model, they sometimes turn to another, and this can be a competing vehicle.

Finally, Ford and all of the other large car manufacturers may have misjudged the market. EVs may not be as popular as expected. There is already research that shows some Americans do not like EVs. One of the reasons is that there are not enough charging stations.

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Ironically, the fact that Ford F-series sales are so large that, if Ford is wrong about EVs, it still has the industry’s sales leader.

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