The sales figures for February are in and it appears to have been a challenging month for the Ford Bronco and Ranger. However, the Blue Oval remains confident in their performance, emphasizing that appearances can be deceiving.
The Detroit carmaker managed to sell exactly zero of its mid-sized pickup truck model, the Ranger, last month. Another figure that jumps off the sales sheet is that Bronco sales plummeted 32.4 percent last month, and are 29.9 percent down year-to-date.
What’s behind the Ranger and Bronco sales numbers?
However, Ford North America’s director of communications, Said Deep, told Carscoops that Ranger sales were artificially low (or rather non existent) because the new model has only just started shipping to dealers, and its sales will only start trickling in this month. We’ll remind you here that last year’s UAW strike happened just as Ford was starting production of the new Ranger.
Read: Ford Maverick Sales Explode In January, Outsells Toyota Tacoma
The situation for the Bronco is a little more complicated. Although sales are down, Deep notes that the SUV is still gaining in market share and that February was the strongest sales month for it since the UAW strike ended in October. He adds that Ford plans to start targeting more than just off-road enthusiasts.
“We continue to see strong gains in retail share for Bronco. February represented the highest retail sales since the strike at over 30 percent of the segment,” Deep told us. “A large part of our growth strategy going forward is to go after mass appeal and bringing customers to Bronco that are not familiar with it as an option. Bronco sales increased sequentially from January to February and we are in a good place heading into the spring selling season.”
Ford Sales 2024 By Segment
Meanwhile, sales of Ford’s other trucks remain strong. Mavericks continued flying off dealer lots in record numbers, and were up an astonishing 73.4 percent in February. Although sales of the F-Series were down, by 5.8 percent, it remains America’s best-selling truck, and deliveries of the F-150 PowerBoost Hybrid are expected to start soon.
Hybrid and EV sales shoot up
That’s good news for Ford’s truck team, because hybrid sales are up 31.5 percent across the company, as compared to February 2022, driven by the Maverick and the Escape Hybrids. Deep adds that one in five orders for the F-150 are already for the PowerBoost Hybrid.
Hybrids aren’t the only area of growth for Ford. The automaker bucked the industry trend in February, and sales of its EVs are up 80.8 percent. That’s thanks to the F-150 Lightning, sales of which increased by 93 percent, and the Mustang Mach-E, whose sales were up 64.3 percent.
Ford sales climb 9.4%, Lincoln rockets 38%
Overall, Ford’s sales rose by 9.4 percent to 165,693 units in February compared to the same month last year, with year-to-date figures up by 6.6 percent. Lincoln performed even better, experiencing a 38% surge in February deliveries to 8,499 units, with year-to-date sales up by 29.4%. The Nautilus emerged as the best seller in Lincoln’s lineup with 3,396 deliveries in February, marking a 95.7 percent increase, followed by the Corsair at 1,984 units (+45.8%), the Aviator with 1,926 units (+5.8%), and the Navigator with 1,193 units (-3.9%) sold in February.