Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) saw its electric vehicle sales soar in April compared to last year as it rolled out new vehicles. However, despite earlier reports that the Mustang Mach-E was outselling Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) vehicles, sales of the Mustang continued to decline month over month.
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Ford reports soaring EV sales
Ford reported that it sold 11,172 electric vehicles in April, a 262% year-over-year increase. Of that total, the all-electric Mustang Mach-E accounted for 1,951, a decline from 2,637 in March and 3,739 in February, the first full month of sales. The month-over-month decline comes after it looked like the Mustang Mach-E was taking market share from Tesla.
Also last month, Ford sold 3,365 F-150 PowerBoost Hybrid pick-up trucks and 3,695 electric Ford Escape SUVs. In a statement, the automaker's vice president of sales for the U.S. and Canada, Andrew Frick, said strong customer reaction to their newest vehicles despite tight inventory boosted their EV sales in April. He noted that last month, Ford not only beat pre-coronavirus sales numbers from April 2019 but also saw record sales of EVs for the month.
The automaker also said the Mustang Mach-E only sits on dealer lots for four days and sells for an average of $45,800. Total retail sales, including EVs and cars with internal combustion engines, grew 57% year over year and 24% from April 2019. Retail truck and SUV sales were up 70%, the best April sales number for the category since 2006.
Mustang Mach-E deliveries start in Norway
One reason some are giving for the decline in Mach-E sales is the fact that Ford is now starting to ship them to Europe. Deliveries of the vehicle have just begun in Norway, where the first buyer took his delivery on Tuesday. Norway is an important market for EV as all-electric vehicles accounted for more than half of the nation's auto sales last month. Plug-in cars accounted for 80% of passenger vehicle sales, according to CleanTechnica.
In the coming months, thousands of Mustang Mach-E cars will be delivered to Norway, including several thousand before summer arrives. Since Ford has a limited amount of production capacity for the vehicle, it makes sense that U.S. sales would decline as it starts allocating some of the cars to other markets where they are being rolled out.
Ford is part of the Entrepreneur Index, which tracks 60 of the largest publicly traded companies managed by their founders or their founders' families.
