Ford's August EV Sales Surge 29% Driven By Cybertruck Rival F-150 Lightning, Despite Its Slowing Future EV Plans

Dearborn-based Ford Motor Co F sold 8,944 electric vehicles in August in the U.S., marking a jump of 29% from the corresponding month last year, the company said on Thursday.

What Happened: The drive in Ford’s EV sales last month was largely driven by a 161% jump in sales for the F-150 Lightning pickup truck, of which the company sold 2,654 units.

Ford's other two EV offerings in the U.S.- the Mustang Mach-E SUV and the E-transit van- also saw sales grow from last year by 6.1% and 6.7%, respectively.

Model	August 2024 Sales	August 2023 Sales
Mustang Mach-E	5,341	5,033
F-150 Lightning	2,654	1,018
E-transit	949	889
Total	8,944	6,940

While the Mustang Mach-E SUV is directly up against EV giant Tesla Inc‘s Model Y SUV in the mass market electric SUV segment, the F-150 Lightning is up against the company's Cybertruck in the electric pickup segment.

Rising Cybertruck sales appear to have no effect on F-150 Lightning sales, which continue to grow this year compared to the same quarters last year. Tesla began delivering its Cybertruck only in November of last year.

In the second quarter, Ford sold 7,902 Lightning trucks, marking a 77% growth from last year despite Tesla delivering 8,755 Cybertrucks in the quarter, as per Kelley Blue Book estimates.

Ford Slows Future EV Plans: Last month, Ford said that it is killing its plans to build a three-row electric SUV, initially slated for production in 2025, citing increased pricing pressure on electric vehicles. The company also postponed its plans for a successor of its F-150 pickup to 2027 and said it will start making a new electric commercial van in 2026.

Ford also said that it intends to use hybrid technology, which combines an electric motor with a gasoline engine, in its next three-row SUVs. “For some commercial applications and larger vehicles, the battery cost of a pure electric vehicle remains challenging,” the company then said.

More details on the company's EV strategy are now expected in the first half of 2025.

EV Financials: Ford’s EV segment recorded an EBIT loss of $1.14 billion in the second quarter owing to industry-wide pricing pressure and lower wholesales despite significant cost reductions in the segment.

For the whole year, Ford expects to incur a loss of $5 billion to $5.5 billion within the EV segment, called Model E.

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