Electric vehicles get so much media coverage that it can sometimes feel like every driver on the planet is falling over themselves to get into an EV, when the truth is quite different. Ford, for instance, is making more Mustang Mach-Es than it can sell, and the unsold inventory is piling up, according to new figures.
Ford dealers shifted 86.4 percent of their Mach-E inventory in 30 days during the second quarter of 2022, reports Business Insider, citing data from analytics firm Cloud Theory. But that percentage figure, which the auto industry refers to as the ‘turn rate’, fell to 27.7 percent in the same period in 2023. Ford’s Mach-E sales also dropped from 10,941 in the three months leading up to July 2022 to 8,633 in Q2, 2023.
The F-150 Lightning electric truck also seems to have lost a little of its lustre. Although deliveries have increased this year versus last and Ford plans to triple production by the end of the year, Cloud Theory’s data suggests the rate of sales is slowing down. Figures show that Ford moved 70 percent of its Lightning inventory within 30 days during the April-Jun stretch of 2022, but that figure had almost halved to 39.3 percent for the corresponding period this year.
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Ford’s head of U.S. sales analysis told Insider that EV sales in America were up by almost 12 percent and suggested the turn rate figure was misleading because the cars were spending longer in transit, meaning that unsold Mach-E inventory wasn’t piling up on dealer lots.
But one East Coast Ford dealer who spoke to Insider on condition of anonymity said Ford’s EV production rate didn’t match customer demand and that the dealership was turning down some of the EV allocation it was offered.
“I think Ford’s got a real problem on their hands based on the bets they’ve made,” a source at the dealer told Insider. “I have Lightnings in stock and Mach-Es in stock. We’ve never had that before.”
But Ford isn’t the only automaker struggling to balance the shifting supply and demand ratio. Cloud Theory’s data reveals that the turn rate has fallen dramatically for other EVs, including the VW ID.4 and Hyundai Ioniq 5.