Ford Suffers From Tiny EV Sales

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Mar 4, 9:15AM EST

Quick Read

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) posted a decline in U.S. sales in February.
Though hybrid sales improved, they were a tiny fraction of the total.

Follow 24/7 Wall St. on Google

This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

Ford Suffers From Tiny EV Sales — © fredrocko / iStock Unreleased via Getty Images

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F | F Price Prediction) posted a decline in U.S. sales in February. Analysts focused on the fact that its hybrid sales improved. However, its electric vehicle (EV) sales remain tiny after investments that range well into the billions of dollars.

Overall, U.S. sales fell 8.9% to 158,675. This was primarily due to a 24% drop in SUV sales to 64,148. Hybrid sales jumped 27.5% to 15,357. However, these hybrid sales were only one in 10 of the U.S. total, which is not very impressive.

Ford posted a significant failure in EV sales, up 16% to 7,326. Sales of its EV flagship, the F-150 Lighting, fell 14% to 2,199. Ford offers a phenomenal deal on the 2024 F-150 Lightning XLT and Lariat models. They are available for 0% financing for 72 months and a complimentary home charger with standard installation. Ford has to be losing thousands of dollars on each sale.

In 2021, Ford announced that it would invest $30 billion in its EV business and that EV sales would be 40% of its global sales by 2030. Ford also said it would have a production run rate of EV production at a pace of 600,000 by the end of 2023. It then pushed that goal to 2024. It also said its goal of selling 2 million EVs would be pushed to 2026.

One effect of Ford’s EV sales is that it has helped drive shares down 25% in the past year. The S&P 500 is up 14% over the same period. Shares of crosstown rival General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) are 15% higher in that time.

Ford faces 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada. That could eventually raise the U.S. prices of its cars and light trucks by thousands of dollars. EV sales may not be its largest problem then.

These Sports Cars Are Cooler Than the Mustang

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.