As the global semiconductor chip shortage continued to curtail auto production and drag down sales across the industry, Ford Motor Co. on Wednesday reported a 10.5% year-over-year decline in U.S. sales in April.
The Dearborn automaker sold 176,965 vehicles last month. Meanwhile, competitors including American Honda Motor Co., Toyota Motor North America and Hyundai Motor Co. earlier this week reported that their sales fell in April, as well, as the industry continues to battle nagging supply-chain issues.
Still, Ford noted that it picked up a percentage point in U.S. market share last month as it saw its inventory flow to dealers improve. The company said during its first-quarter earnings report that the chip shortage and other supply-chain disruptions had hampered production in the first three months of the year, but that it started to see production improvements in March.
The automaker is now shipping the all-electric F-150 Lightning to dealers, though April's sales release did not include any sales figure for the truck.
"While industry semiconductor chip shortages persist, improved inventory flow in April delivered a significant share gain of 1.0 percentage point over a year ago with Ford outperforming the industry," Andrew Frick, vice president of sales, distribution and trucks, said in a statement. "Inventory flow bolstered stronger F-Series, Mustang Mach-E, E-Transit and record April Ford brand SUV sales. We are now shipping all models of the electric F-150 Lightning."
Ford reported that sales of its electric vehicles increased 139% year-over-year in April on sales of the Mustang Mach-E SUV and the E-Transit cargo van. Mach-E had its best monthly sales performance since it launched at the end of 2020, up 95% year-over-year, according to Ford.
Year-to-date, Ford's sales are down 15.3% from the same period last year.
It did see an increase in the SUV segment in April, however, with sales up 2.7% over April 2021.
Sales of Ford's flagship truck lineup, F-Series, were down 22.3% in April, though the automaker noted that sales were up nearly 15% over March.
Lincoln brand sales were down 11.6%.
