Ford Might Sell a Million F-Series Trucks This Year

The sales numbers for the first half of 2018 are in the books and there is a chance that Ford might sell more than a million F-Series pickups this year – marking the first time that America’s most popular vehicle has surpassed the million-unit mark in a calendar year.

It is no secret that American love trucks and Ford has made it clear that over the next few years, the company will focus more on trucks and SUVs and less on sedans. Some people think that it is a risky move for the Motor Company, but based on sales of the Ford F-Series pickup through the first half of 2018, it is hard to question the shift to focus on trucks and SUVs.

2018 Sales
In June 2018, Ford wrapped up the first half of the year by reporting monthly F-Series sales of nearly 80,000 units, up about 2% from the same month last year. On the year, Ford’s big trucks are up about 5%, moving over 451,000 trucks during the first six months of 2018, leading to an average of over 75,000 trucks sold every month. Based on the current rate, Ford is on pace to sell more than 901,000 trucks in 2018, but as truck sales grow later in the year, there is a very real chance of Ford topping the million mark for the F-Series.

The all-time record for F-Series sales in the US came back in 2004, when the company sold 939,511 examples of their popular pickup. Through the first half of 2018, F-Series sales numbers are up 4.1% over 2004, and if that rate continues, the Motor Company will sell around 978,031 full-sized trucks. With an improvement on the already-strong numbers, the million F-Series mark will be within reach.

The Million Mark is Coming
Based on the steady rate of Ford F-Series sales growth over the past five years, if the F-Series doesn’t eclipse the 1,000,000 unit mark this year, it will do so within the next two years. Of course, a change in the buying habits could prevent that from happening, but based on current trends, Ford will sell a million F-Series trucks a year in the US by 2020.

Even if Ford doesn’t sell a million F-Series trucks this year, continued growth over the course of the next six months coupled with the arrival of the new Ford Ranger could allow the Motor Company to hit the million mark, although not strictly for the F-Series. Based on the projected numbers above, the Ranger would only need to move about 20,000 units this year to help the Motor Company sell more than a million pickup trucks in 2018.

At the same time, provided that the Ranger does as well as the company expects, 2019 is all-but-guaranteed to be a year when Ford sells more than 1,000,000 trucks, but they might do it with the F-Series alone.

Incredible Sales Numbers
Many new car dealerships are not open on Sundays, so if you remove all of the Sundays through the first six months of 2018, there have been about 155 selling days. The actual number might be higher since some dealerships are open on Sundays, but when you factor in holidays, 155 is a reasonable number to use for the selling days in 2018. With 451,138 F-Series trucks sold this year, Ford dealers have sold an average of 2,911 pickups each and every day.

Let’s say that every dealership was open for 12 hours on all of those selling days. That means that in 2018, Ford dealerships have been open for about 1,860 hours and with 451,138 trucks sold during that time, dealers have sold an average of 243 trucks every hour or 4 trucks every minute. If it took you five minutes to read this piece, Ford sold 20 F-Series trucks.

So, Ford averages 2,911 F-Series trucks sold each day, 243 sold each hour and 4 sold every minute, but how does that compare to some competitive models?

Well, let’s look at the Nissan Titan. In June, Nissan sold 4,121 examples of their full-sized truck, so by lunchtime on June 2nd, Ford had already sold more trucks than Nissan would sell all month. On the year, Nissan has sold 23,294 Titans and with Ford’s rate of 2,911 F-Series trucks sold each day, Ford had sold more full-sized trucks by January 9th than Nissan has sold in the first six months of the year.

We will have to wait and see how long it takes Ford to hit the million-trucks-sold mark, but with the current popularity of the F-Series and the impending arrival of the Ranger – the odds are good that if it doesn’t happen in 2018, it will happen in 2019.