Ford’s US sales fell by 15.6% in 2020 due to the availability of Covid, F-150

U.S. car sales for Ford Motor declined 15.6% last year due to the coronavirus pandemic, declining commercial fleet sales and close inventory of its F-150 pickups.

Sales of the popular full-size pickup dropped by about 33% in the fourth quarter from the same time last year, the carmaker reported Tuesday. The lower sales were attributed to the continuing consequences of the factory outages last spring due to Covid-19, as well as a change in the production of the facilities to manufacture the redesigned F-150.

“We are currently optimizing production at both plants, and it’s an issue to bring more F-150s to our dealership parties,” Erich Merkle, Ford’s head of U.S. sales analysis, told CNBC. He said the stock of the F-150 was 141,000 units to end last year, up from 267,000 a year earlier.

Ford’s sales decline in 2020 is expected to be in line with the general US car industry, which is expected to decline by about 15% to 14.5 million vehicles. It would be the lowest local sales since 2012. It also ends an unprecedented five-year series with 17 million units.

Ford’s truck sales fell by 11.3% in 2020, while SUVs fell by 9.7% year-on-year. Sales of passenger vehicles, which Ford is discontinuing, excluding key models such as the Mustang, fell by 44.7% compared to 2019.

Andrew Frick, Ford vice president of U.S. and Canada sales, believes the company is well positioned this year from a product standpoint as it transitions from passenger vehicles.

“The fourth quarter was a turning point at Ford in our transition from cars to a much greater focus on iconic trucks and sport utility vehicles to better serve our customers,” he said. “We are well positioned to see the benefits of our focused efforts during 2021.”