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Ford Motor’s F-150 pickup tight inventory levels due to pandemic-related plant closures earlier this year and the start of production of a redesigned model resulted in a 20.9% drop of the automaker’s sales in November, the company said Wednesday.
The Detroit automaker said sales of the popular full-size pickup were nearly halved – down 45.9% – from November 2019. Its truck sales overall last month were down 20.9%. That includes a 27.2% drop in sales of its F-series pickup trucks, including the F-150 and other larger variants of the vehicle.
Ford shares fell less than 1% on Wednesday. The stock, which has a market value of nearly $ 36 billion, is down about 1% year-to-date.
Ford’s supply problem highlights an ongoing concern for the auto industry, as customer demand for pickup trucks has remained relatively strong during the coronavirus pandemic. Factories were forced to shut down for around two months in the second quarter during the first outbreak of Covid-19 cases. Automakers operate factories that produce vehicles almost 24 hours a day to fill dealer inventories.
“F-150 inventories continued to tighten as we went through our fourth quarter shift to the all-new F-150,” said Mark LaNeve, Ford vice president, marketing, sales and US service. United, in a press release. “This was the result of the coronavirus-related production shutdowns in the second quarter and a sharp drop in the current F-150 model.”
Ford also noted a “renewed emphasis on stay-at-home policies due to the rise in coronavirus cases” and one less selling weekend in the month compared to a year ago, which explains why its sales fell to 149,931 vehicles in November, down about 40,000 from a year ago. one year earlier. Ford’s sales for the year are down 16.8% through November.
According to Ford, sales of new vehicles last month fell 15% to 1.24 million in the US industry.
This is the second month in a row that Ford has published monthly sales after new CEO Jim Farley promised Wall Street greater transparency. The automaker had reported vehicle sales in the United States on a quarterly basis since last year.
Other automakers to report monthly sales include Honda Motor, Hyundai Motor, Kia Motors, and others. Here are their sales reported last month compared to November 2019:
– Honda: down 23.4%
– Hyundai: down 10.6%
– Kia: 5.2% drop
– Mazda: down 10.8%
– Subaru: down 11.4%
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