( F ) said that its USA sales increased 4 percent in April versus a year ago, with 231,316 vehicles sold. He pointed out that Ford recorded a 12.6 percent gain in F-series truck sales as the company is “finally getting the full year rotation in terms of sales and production of the F-series” at various production facilities.
Advertisement
Pickup trucks helped drive Ford’s sales growth, and the Dearborn automaker’s best-selling F-Series trucks posted a 13 percent increase to 70,774 units on the month.
Since FCA is heavily reliant on sales of pricey sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks, its continued sales growth is a sign that consumers are confident enough to keep spending. The Expedition saw a sales increase of 46.7% and Explorer sales rose 22.3% year over year.
By brand, Ford vehicle sales were up 3 percent to 221,540 units, while Lincoln rose 20 percent to 9,776 units. So far, sales results have exceeded estimates by Edmunds.com, with the exception of GM, where the decline of 3.5 percent was steeper than the 2.3 percent expected.
“Consumer preference for SUVs and pickup trucks continued unabated in April and helped to propel us to our strongest April sales in 11 years”, said Reid Bigland, head of sales for Fiat Chrysler in North America. Auto stocks fell during a broad market sell off that saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Standard & Poor’s 500 Index both fall more than 1 percent. On the downside, Fiat brand sales tumbled 19 percent. The SUV starts at more than $31,000 and can reach well over $50,000.
The nation’s No. 1 producer, General Motors (GM – Get Report) , reported a 3.5% decline in sales for the month, mostly due to a decline in deliveries to daily-rental fleets. All four of GM’s brands were down for the month.
The company’s utilities did well too, rising 7 percent to 72,459 units.
Automakers’ sales data will be released throughout the day.
Advertisement
For the whole industry, the average projection was for a 17.5 million annualized selling rate for the month, adjusted for seasonal trends. This is the second month in a row F-Series surpassed 70,000 sales, marking their best April performance in 11 years, according to Ford. The month may be even better than anticipated.
