GM overtakes Ford to become second-largest seller of electric vehicles – Orange County Register

Keith Norton | | Bloomberg

General Motors has outperformed Ford Motor Co. by almost two to one in electric vehicles in the first three months of the year as the automaker chases market leader Tesla.

Ford sold 10,866 EVs in the US in the first quarter, according to a statement Tuesday. That was a 41% increase from a year ago, but still short of the 20,670 plug-ins GM sold in the same period. ‘s sales in the first quarter increased by 17.6%.

Ford’s Mustang Mach-E electric vehicle sales fell 19.7% to 5,407 units, and its plant in Mexico was down for much of the quarter as the automaker doubled its annual production capacity to 210,000 models. Ford also lost five weeks of production to an F-150 Lightning plug-in pickup battery fire that led to a minor recall.

CEO Jim Farley has set a goal of initially becoming second to Tesla, which controls two-thirds of the US EV market, and eventually overtaking the EV leader. Ford says that by 2026 he will spend $50 billion developing and manufacturing EVs, but this year he expects to lose $3 billion on battery-powered models.

Ford recently increased the starting price of its popular Lightning pickup to $59,974, up 50% from its original starting price of $39,974. The automaker is also expanding production to 150,000 models per year by the end of this year. Erich Merkle, a sales analyst at the company, said the price hike had not affected sales.

“We don’t see any signs that demand for the F-150 Lightning is slowing,” Markle said. “Sales are limited by what we can produce.”

Ford is expanding production capacity for all three electric models it sells. The company announced Tuesday it is adding a third shift of workers building his plug-in E-Transit vans at its Kansas City plant.