It’s the automotive equivalent of the annual return of the Swallows from Capistrano.
For the 46th year in a row, Ford (F) says its F-Series pickups will be the best-selling truck in America for 2022.
Though official Ford sales figures won’t be released until Jan. 5, the Dearborn-based automaker is fairly confident that the more than 640,000 F-Series trucks sold will be top competitors like GM, Toyota and Stellantis’ Ram brand, shared the company with a statement.
Now, if GM were to combine sales of its Chevrolet Silverado and its sister company, the GMC Sierra pickup truck, it would be the best-selling (co-engineered and co-manufactured) truck platform in America with 768,689 vehicles sold last year (with the Ford F-Series last year selling 726,004). Year). ).But that’s not how it works, there’s only one F-Series. In fact, Ford hasn’t made corporate clones of its F-Series pickups since 2002 (remember the Lincoln Blackwood?).
Those more than 640,000 trucks sold would make the F-Series the best-selling overall vehicle in America for the 41st year in a row. Ford says if you lined up every Ford pickup truck sold in the last year, it would stretch 2,400 miles, or longer than the driving distance from Los Angeles to Detroit.
Ford is also likely to have sold about 15,000 F-150 Lightning pickups in 2022 — its first year of sales — and that also brings us to another piece of Ford news.
In a leaked report to customers, automotive production research firm AutoForecast Solutions (AFS) predicted that the 2nd generation Ford F-150 Lightnings will go into production starting August 18, 2025. The report states that the 2nd and 1st generation Lightnings will be in production together for approximately 4 months before Ford fully transitions to the 2nd generation platform, which will be the all-electric TE1 platform. The current Lightning platform is shared with the regular gas-powered F-150.
Sam Fiorani, AFS VP of Global Vehicle Forecasting, said the following about the Lightning in a phone interview with Yahoo Finance:
“The latest information we have indicates that the next-gen F-Series Lightning will enter production in August 2025. When developing a new vehicle, the dates change all the time, but the current planning is for that date,” Fiorani said.
The story goes on
Fiorani noted that AFS tracks the production of vehicles in about 60 countries around the world. “So by ensuring that this data is accurate, our customers – both suppliers and manufacturers – can ensure they know when the market is changing.”
Ford may reveal more about its electric plans on February 2 when the company reports its Q4 results. It will also be the last time Ford will combine the results of its gas-powered and electric businesses in its quarterly results, as the company plans to start disaggregating divisional results beginning in 2023.
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Pras Subramanian is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. you can follow him Twitter and further Instagram.
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