GM Overtakes Ford as Second-Best Seller of EVs in the US
During the first quarter, General Motors surpassed Ford Motor to become the second-largest seller of all-electric vehicles in the United States, trailing only Tesla.
According to GM's announcement on Monday, the company sold 20,670 EVs in the first three months of the year. Ford, which held the No.2 position last year, reported EV sales of 10,866 for the same period on Tuesday.
However, according to Motor Intelligence, Ford's EV sales during the first quarter slipped, causing it to fall to fifth place in the US market, behind Hyundai Motor, which includes Kia, and Volkswagen.
The decline in Ford's sales and ranking was primarily caused by two of its North American factories that manufacture electric vehicles experiencing production downtimes. During the quarter, sales of its Mustang Mach-E dropped by 19.7% because one of its Mexican factories was being reconfigured to double its annual production capacity of the EVs to 210,000 units. Additionally, Ford faced challenges with its F-150 Lightning pickup due to a battery fire, which resulted in some factory downtime and a minor recall. Despite its efforts, GM still lags far behind Tesla in EV sales, with Motor Intelligence approximating that Tesla sold around 161,630 EVs in the U.S. during the first quarter.
GM and Ford have expressed their intentions to surpass Tesla's EV sales in the future. However, Tesla is aiming to expand its own EV production significantly and predicts the manufacture of 20 million electric vehicles annually by 2030. Though the majority of GM's EV sales were of its Chevrolet Bolt EV and Chevrolet Bolt EUV models, which are priced under $30,000 and feature older battery technology than its newer models like the GMC Hummer and Cadillac Lyriq.
GM recently announced its plan to produce 50,000 EVs in the first half of 2023 and double that in the second half of the year, with the Cadillac Lyriq production increasing and the electric version of Chevrolet Silverado pickup set to launch in Spring.
As per the confirmed reports on Tuesday, Ford has announced the extension of its EVs production, which includes the expansion of F-150 Lightning's production at a Michigan plant. The company aims to increase the annual production run rate to 150,000 this year. Ford has also revealed its intentions of achieving a global production capacity of 2 million EVs annually by 2026. General Motors has set the same goal but plans to hit the threshold a year earlier.
