Ford Motor Co.'s new-vehicle sales in the U.S. slumped nearly 32% in July compared with the same period last year, reflecting the toll of a global computer-chip shortage that has thrown a major wrench into auto production.
The Dearborn, Mich., automaker reported Wednesday that it sold 120,053 new vehicles in the U.S. last month. Total sales were down 31.8% from last July while retail sales were down 37.7%. Sales of trucks were off 27% while SUV sales fell 27.3%. And sales of nearly every Ford and Lincoln model were down compared with the same period last year.
Still, the company highlighted the success of its first all-electric vehicle, the Mustang Mach-E, which was introduced at the end of last year. Mach-E's July sales of 2,854 units grew 15.8% over June, and the vehicle is now the second best-selling battery-electric SUV.
Meanwhile, Mustang sales were down 16.1%. In terms of Ford SUVs, EcoSport was down 27.9%, Escape sales plummeted 71%, Edge sales fell 57.9%, Explorer was off 26.4% and Expedition sales dropped 6.8%.
But transaction pricing for Ford SUVs hit a record of $42,000 per unit in July, up $6,200 over last year.
July marked the second month that sales of the new Bronco SUV were reported. Ford sold 3,277 units of the highly anticipated product.
Meanwhile, Ford recorded 2,306 sales of its new Bronco Sport SUV, a smaller version of the full-size Bronco. That's down from 8,355 sales in June, for a 72% decline.
On the truck side, sales of Ford's profit engine, the F-Series pickup truck franchise, were down 26.2% year over year. Sales of the Ranger, E-Series, Transit and Transit Connect also were down.
Ford's luxury Lincoln brand plummeted 50.9% year over year in July with total sales of 4,237 vehicles. Sales of every Lincoln model were down. The Nautilus SUV, for example, was down 24.5% and the Aviator SUV was down 44.1%.