CHICAGO, June 3 (Xinhua) -- Ford Motor Co. said Thursday that it sold 154,461 vehicles in the United States in May, down 4.5 percent from May 2021.
To be specific, the U.S. automaker sold 74,595 trucks, down 1.4 percent year on year; 76,625 SUVs, down 4.4 percent; and 6,254 electric vehicles (EVs), up 221.5 percent.
The growth of Ford's EV sales is almost four times faster than the overall U.S. EV sales in May, the company said on its website.
Despite the continued global industry semiconductor shortage, Ford has outperformed the industry in U.S. sales, and its market share rose by 3.5 percent to 13.5 percent.
Year to date, Ford's U.S. sales in the first five months went down 13.3 percent year on year.
Cox Automotive analysts expected U.S. auto sales to drop to their lowest level of the year, the Detroit News reported on Thursday. Cox forecast that U.S. new-vehicle sales would be down 28 percent year-over-year in May, due to high prices and low inventory.
A Cox analysis found that there was only a 36-day supply of new vehicles at the start of May, industry-wide, the Detroit News reported, adding that rising interest rates and increases in monthly car payments likely "batter" demand. ■