The F-Series holds a lead year-to-date, but it is losing ground.
Ford’s long-standing dominance in sales of F-Series trucks has come to an abrupt halt as we approach the 2021 midway point. We can see that the F150 and its Super-Duty brothers are struggling to sell. The Ram as well as the Chevrolet Silverado were more popular than the F-Series in their second quarter 2021. This was between April, May and June.
Let’s get into the numbers. We will need your patience as reporting differences can make it a little more complicated. The global microchip shortage caused a terrible June 2021 for the Blue Oval. This was covered in a previous report. However, we noticed that F-Series sales fell nearly 30% compared to June 2020. We looked at the figures for Ram and Chevrolet. However, both companies report quarterly, whereas Ford reports monthly. Chevrolet reports light-duty trucks separately.
To compare apples to apples, we had to do some more research and do some math. But, after all the data was compiled, Ford is now third in truck-sales for Q2 2021.
The chart shows that Ford is still the leader in truck sales year-to-date, but Ram is second by 48,964. This is a surprising result. Is there a chip shortage? Only Source of the blame? You could be tempted to criticize the F-150’s conservative styling, which is driving Ford buyers away. Ford wouldn’t have seen a nine percent gain in the first quarter 2021 if this were true. Ford also posted a healthy F-Series increase of 31.8 percent for April 2021. The chip shortage made an impact at the dealerships in May but things didn’t fall too much until then. There is no deeper conspiracy. Ford can’t get trucks to people who want them.
A Ford spokesperson stated that the automaker planned to increase F-Series production through the second half, while also delivering existing trucks that have been parked and awaiting semiconductor chips. This should all happen by October. Ford doesn’t speak about the number of trucks that are still being built, but reports and rumors suggest that it could be in the tens or thousands. The Q2 sales figures show that some Ford buyers are moving elsewhere to get a truck they need. Ram has not provided any information about production issues, and we know that General Motors shipped trucks to dealerships without certain features, such as cylinder deactivation . This will be rectified later, once the chips are available.
Ford could lose its decades-old top-selling title if it cannot source the chips necessary to get production moving. Pickup truck enthusiasts could find themselves in a very difficult second half of 2018.