Over the past two years, major automakers selling vehicles in the U.S. have moved to quarterly sales reporting. Ford kickstarted that trend in January 2019, but is now changing course, as new CEO Jim Farley said on a recent earnings call. As part of the decision, Farley told financial analysts, “My commitment to each of you is transparency, including purposeful, measurable key performance indicators so you can objectively track our progress.”
To that end, the company said it would revive its monthly sales reporting practices while also reporting the quarterly snapshots it has exclusively done over the past 21 months. By and large, that will give the TFL team a better barometer by which to inform you about sales more regularly than we’ve been able to. Companies like Honda, Kia, Hyundai and some others have continued to report on a monthly basis. However, that does not give an industry-wide picture of how the car and truck markets are performing here in the U.S.
Last month, Ford did report a 6.1% overall sales drop compared to this time last year. Most of the industry has in fact rebounded from crippling sales during early stages of the coronavirus pandemic. As the Blue Oval shifts its portfolios away from passenger cars, though, it has fallen by a wider margin. Ford F-150 sales were also down 4% — a notably significant figure considering they sell nearly a million units each year. Transit van sales also fell, as CNBC points out in their report, likely due to a precipitous drop in fleet sales from last year.
More monthly updates coming soon
While General Motors and FCA continue to report quarterly, we will provide more sales updates in November. Ford is one of the largest players here in the U.S., so a move back to monthly sales reporting will provide a broader look at the most popular cars when this month’s sales figures roll out on December 1.
If you missed it, here’s a look at how the Big Three’s car sales fared over the third quarter. We also published a truck sales video, which you can watch below:
