Ford Motor Co.'s U.S. sales slipped 2.2% year-over-year in 2022, amid the auto industry's worst sales showing in a decade.
The Dearborn automaker reported 1,780,978 sales for the year, down from 1,819,026 in 2021. For December, Ford's sales of 179,279 vehicles were up 3.2% year-over-year.
Meanwhile, Ford's market share inched up 0.7 percentage points last year, buoyed by its growing electric-vehicle sales. Ford sold 61,575 EVs in the U.S. last year, up 126% for the year. The automaker is in second place in EV sales behind market leader Tesla Inc. and aims to boost annual EV production capacity to 600,000 units globally by the end of this year.
“Delivering on our strategy, share expansion came from broad-based growth from our SUV lineup and our all-new EVs growing at twice the rate of the overall EV segment," Andrew Frick, vice president of sales, distribution and trucks for Ford Blue, said in a statement. "With a strong retail order bank, Ford is well positioned heading into 2023.”
Ford has three EVs on the market: the F-150 Lightning pickup, which closed the year as the best-selling electric truck in the U.S. with 15,617 sales since it launched in May; the E-Transit van, which had 73% share of the electric van segment to end the year, with 6,500 sales; and the Mustang Mach-E crossover SUV, which saw sales increase 45.4% year-over-year on sales of 39,458 units.
The F-Series pickup truck lineup, Ford's cash cow, recorded sales of 653,957 trucks last year — down nearly 10% from 2021 but enough to retain its decades-long streak as America's best-selling truck and overall vehicle. The automaker reported that F-Series had its best monthly sales performance of the year in December with 75,076 trucks sold.
The company has more than 245,000 orders for the new 2023 Super Duty, which is part of the F-Series franchise. Overall, Ford reported having a record 329,000 retail orders for model-year 2023 vehicles, up nearly 70% over 2022 model-year vehicles as the automaker increasingly moves to a model in which customers order their vehicles in advance.
For the popular Bronco that launched in 2021, Ford reported sales of 10,412 units in December and said the SUV's share of its segment climbed to its highest level since launch. The company sold 117,057 Broncos last year.
The Bronco Sport, the smaller sibling of the Bronco, notched just under 100,000 sales for the year, down 8% year-over-year.
Explorer, one of the most popular Ford brand SUVs, saw sales slip 5.5% for the year and 7.8% in December. Expedition sales were up nearly 11% in December but down 24% for the year.
In the truck segment, Ranger sales were down nearly 40% in 2022, while sales of the popular Maverick were up significantly after the compact pickup launched in 2021.
The Blue Oval maintained its streak, now at 44 years, of having the best-selling commercial van lineup in the U.S. The results were led by sales of the popular Transit van.
Lincoln, Ford's luxury brand, reported sales that were down 4% for the year but up 17.3% in December.
