Ford is one of the oldest and most well-known American automakers, and it’s been making some great cars throughout its long and successful history. In the modern day, it’s not surprising that the Mustang isn’t Ford’s best-selling car, but rather, it’s the F-Series line of pickup trucks. Here’s a look at Ford’s most recent sales data and how vital the F-Series is to the American automaker. 

The Ford F-Series is responsible for a large chunk of Ford’s sales

Ford Authority published the sales numbers for the first quarter of 2023, and overall, Ford continues to be a successful and growing automaker. Ford saw growth of about 10% compared to the same period last year. On the other hand, Lincoln, which is a luxury automaker that’s owned by Ford, saw a 1% decrease compared to last year.

In raw numbers, Ford sold over 450,000 units in the first quarter of 2023. That said, that sales number includes passenger cars as well as commercial vehicles, such as the Transit van. However, the F-Series is the Detroit-based automaker’s best-selling model overall, and it’s not even close.

So far this year, Ford has already sold over 170,000 units of the F-Series line of pickup trucks. This means that Ford’s trucks are responsible for just over 37% of the company’s sales so far this year.

In comparison, the Explorer midsize SUV had the second largest share of sales. The automaker’s sold about 58,000 units of the SUV so far this year. That represents just 12.7% of the company’s total year-to-date sales.

The Ford F-Series saw a big growth in sales compared to last year

As many people know, the supply chain crisis that started during the COVID-19 pandemic caused a lot of havoc to the auto industry, and Ford has only begun recovering from that chaos.

As such, it’s not surprising that the F-Series saw a significant growth in sales in 2023 compared to 2022. In the same time period last year, the Detroit-based automaker sold about 140,000 units of the truck.

Overall, Ford sold almost 413,000 units in the first quarter of 2022. Compared to last year, the F-Series has sold by about 21% better. In raw numbers, Ford has sold almost 30,000 more trucks year-to-date in 2023 than in 2022.

On top of that, the F-Series’ share of total sales also grew this year compared to last year. In the same period last year, the F-Series was responsible for about 34% of the company’s total sales. That’s a 3% difference compared to this year.

Ford is investing heavily in its trucks because they’re keeping the company afloat

This latest data simply represent a trend that’s been going on for a long time now. In fact, the F-Series has been the best-selling model in America for over 40 years. It’s also been the best-selling truck for about the same amount of time. That likely showed Ford that not only can trucks be popular, but that the F-Series can be a serious money maker.

As a result, the automaker has been investing heavily in pickup trucks. The fact that the company developed and produced the F-150 Lightning, an electric version of the F-150, shows how much the company values the truck segment.

Not only that, but Ford has been reacting to the rise of SUVs and trucks by discontinuing its smaller vehicles. Ford doesn’t have any regular sedans in its lineup anymore, and the Ecosport, which is a subcompact SUV, was killed off recently due to poor sales.

Ford is still able to succeed because its trucks are so popular that they can make up the difference.