Ford F-150 Production Restraints Hurting Sales

Ford sales took a hit last month because the American automaker can’t produce enough of its all-new 2015 F-150 pickup.

The company’s sales were down nearly two percent in February despite the rest of the market seeing a growth compared to a year ago. The sales drop can be largely attributed to production restraints on the new F-150, which also saw a one-percent decline in sales last month. As a result, Toyota was able to outsell Ford for the first time in six months but things are expected to turn the corner in the coming months.

The new F-150 has required two of Ford’s assembly plants to have downtime, retooling for the new pickup and have cost at least 90,000 in lost production of trucks since mid-2014. Ford vice president of U.S marketing, sales and service, Mark LaNeve, admitted that Ford has had a limited number of trucks to sell for the last nine months. The company believes that dealers will be fully stocked by June and is optimistic by the early sales of the F-150 that it will continue to be a success in the marketplace.

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The new F-150 is staying on dealer lots an average of 18 days, said LaNeve. The King Ranch and Platinum models are being sold in 16 and 12 days, respectively. And since inventories are tight right now, Ford has put a restriction on fleet sales and isn’t loading up on incentives to clear inventory on the outgoing 2014 models.

The company’s Dearborn Truck Plant was retooled last year and is currently the only factory building the new trucks. Ford expects to start production at its second plant in Kansas City, Missouri this month.

[Source: The Detroit News]

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