The first quarter brought stronger sales volume, cash flow and profits for American auto manufacturer Ford, according to its earnings summary released May 2.
The Blue-Oval brand saw revenues increase 20% from early 2022, earning $41.5 billion with $1.8 billion in net income. The improved profitability is notable given the automaker’s prior year net loss of $3.1 billion, a result of its depreciating stake in EV brand Rivian. In February, Ford sold off most of its remaining shares in the company after reporting a write-down of $7.3 billion.
Earlier this year, the company adopted a new reporting format that categorizes activity by business segment rather than region, allowing it to distinguish between its gas, electric and fleet operations. Overall, Ford’s sales grew from last year’s first-quarter volume at a rate of 9% to surpass one million units, edging the automaker’s market share to 5% from 4.8%. By section, sales of the brand’s hybrid and gas-powered cars (labeled as Ford Blue) grew 6% over Q1 2022, electric vehicles (labeled as Ford Model e) by 32% and fleet (labeled as Ford Pro) by 13.2%.
EVs continued to represent a sore spot for the company, despite the segment’s sizeable growth. Like most legacy automakers, the brand is still selling its electric products at a loss due to a variety of issues, including high manufacturing costs and consumer hesitation. Ford also noted factory disruptions had caused it to fall behind on first-quarter deliveries of the Mustang Mach-E and F-150 Lightning. However, the manufacturer claims it is still on track to hit its EV sales target of 600,000 units by the end of 2023 and two million units by 2026.
