DETROIT – General Motors pulled forward of Ford Motor to develop into the nation’s second best-seller of all-electric automobiles throughout the first quarter, trailing solely trade chief Tesla.
GM on Monday mentioned it bought 20,670 EVs throughout the first three months of the 12 months. Ford, which was No. 2 final 12 months, reported EV gross sales Tuesday of 10,866 over the identical timeframe.
Motor Intelligence studies Ford’s EV gross sales throughout the first quarter dropped its rating in EV gross sales to fifth within the U.S. Hyundai Motor, together with Kia, and Volkswagen pulled forward of Ford along with GM, in response to the auto trade information agency.
Ford’s drop in rankings and gross sales had been largely because of manufacturing downtimes at two of its North American crops that produce electrical automobiles. Sales of its Mustang Mach-E fell 19.7% throughout the quarter, because it retooled a manufacturing unit in Mexico to double its manufacturing capability to 210,000 fashions a 12 months. Ford additionally misplaced about 5 manufacturing weeks of its F-150 Lightning pickup because of a battery fireplace, which led to manufacturing unit downtown and a small recall.
GM nonetheless considerably trails Tesla in EV gross sales. Motor Intelligence estimates Tesla, which doesn’t report gross sales by area, bought 161,630 EVs within the U.S. throughout the first quarter.
Both GM and Ford have mentioned they plan to overhaul Tesla in EV gross sales within the years forward, nonetheless Elon Musk’s firm is concentrating on important growth of its personal EV manufacturing. Tesla beforehand mentioned it expects to provide 20 million electrical automobiles per 12 months by 2030.
UAW Local 5960 member Kimberly Fuhr inspects a Chevrolet Bolt EV throughout automobile manufacturing on Thursday, May 6, 2021, on the General Motors Orion Assembly Plant in Orion Township, Michigan.
Steve Fecht for Chevrolet
A majority of GM’s EV gross sales had been from its Chevrolet Bolt fashions that begin beneath $30,000. The automobiles characteristic older battery expertise known as Ultium than its newer, dearer EVs such because the GMC Hummer and Cadillac Lyriq.
GM confirmed Monday that it expects to construct 50,000 EVs within the first half of 2023 and “double that” within the second half of the 12 months, as Lyriq manufacturing ramps up and shipments of the electrical model of the Chevrolet Silverado pickup start later this spring.
Ford is increasing manufacturing of its EVs as properly, together with plans, which it reconfirmed Tuesday, to broaden manufacturing of the F-150 Lightning at a Michigan plant to an annual manufacturing run price of 150,000 this 12 months.
Ford has mentioned it plans to realize annual manufacturing capability of two million EVs globally by 2026. GM has mentioned it’s going to hit that very same threshold a 12 months earlier.
– CNBC’s Phil LeBeau contributed to this report.
Source: www.cnbc.com”