Pickup Trucks at the Top in Q1 2022, Led by Ford F-150
Move over SUVs, trucks are here to take over! The numbers from the first quarter of 2022 are out, and the results are a bit surprising. The first three vehicles on the list are all pickup trucks from Ford, Ram, and Chevrolet. The Ford F-150 or F-Series led the way, followed by the Ram 1500 and Chevy Silverado in spots two and three.
The Ford F-150 was the best selling vehicle in Q2 2022
According to Reuters, the year’s first quarter was full of surprises. The top-selling new cars in the country started with the Ford F-Series pickup truck. Ford managed to sell 140,701 Ford F-150 trucks in the first few months of the year. However, that number is actually down 31% over the first quarter of 2021.
Next up, the Ram 1500 pickup truck was in second place. Ram sold 127,116 trucks in the first quarter of the year. That is compared to 148,836 units sold during the same period of 2021. Only down 14.6%, Ram is approaching spot number one pretty quickly.
The Chevy Silverado was the third most popular vehicle sold in the first few months of 2022. Chevrolet managed to sell 121,107 units of the Silverado truck, down only 4.3% from last year. Despite all of the shortages, Chevy Silverado production wasn’t held back as much as the Ford F-Series trucks.
Why are Ford sales down if the F-150 pickup truck sold the most?
The semiconductor chip shortages continued to plague Ford throughout the first part of the year. According to Ford, that slump seems to be almost over, thanks in part to the popularity of the Ford F-150. Ford had a record 50,000 orders for the F-Series truck in March alone. In total, Ford sold 159,328 vehicles in March. 74,420 of those were trucks, 81,280 were SUVs, and 13,772 were sales of electric vehicles.
Retail sales for the brand were up 23.2% over February. SUV sales were up 39.2%, while truck and van sales were up 12.5%. The automaker took over 50,000 orders in March alone, up 38,000 over last year. And in other news, Ford says its “F-Series in-transit inventory expanded 127% over February and 66.1% over a year ago.”
Thanks to the brand-new Ford Maverick truck, truck sales were up overall. The Maverick posted the best month of sales since the introduction, up 115% over February. Those lucky enough to find a Maverick on the dealership lot didn’t wait around. Most of these trucks sat for only four days before hitting the road with a new buyer.
The pickup truck popularity isn’t going anywhere – it’s going electric
There were a lot of SUVs on the top 20 list as well. The Toyota RAV4 (101,192), Jeep Grand Cherokee (75,117), and Toyota Highlander (66,026) had successful first quarters as well. Toyota had the most vehicles on the list with five total; two SUVs, one truck, and two sedans. This included the Toyota RAV4, Highlander, Camry, Tacoma, and Corolla.
Interestingly enough, Ford only had three vehicles on the list even though it was in the first place. The Ford Explorer (42,736) was in 15th place, and the Ford Escape (39,962) came in 17th. Honda also had three vehicles, including the CR-V, Accord, and Civic.
It isn’t clear where the market is going as the summer months approach. With deliveries of brand-new trucks like the Ford F-150 Lightning electric truck and Maverick getting ready to ramp up, Ford might have some positive months coming up.
