Ford’s F-150 Lightning Is a Hit. The Stock Slid Anyway.

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Ford Motor

released U.S. sales figures for June on Tuesday, and sales of its all-electric F-150 Lightning pickup truck surged. That should be good news, but the stock was down anyway.

Ford

(ticker: F) shares dropped 3.5% in midday trading. The

S&P 500
and

Dow Jones Industrial Average
were off 1.5% and 1.8%, respectively.

Lightning sales jumped to about 1,800 units in June from about 460 units in May. It is a solid result. Ford just started delivering the electric pickup in recent weeks.

The Lightning is an important vehicle for the company—F-series sales account for 33% of total Ford U.S. volume.

Another Ford EV, the Mustang Mach E, might bear some of the blame for Tuesday’s stock drop. Ford delivered 1,957 Mach Es in June, down from 5,179 delivered in May. The June 2022 figure is also lower than the 2,465 delivered in June 2021.

Investors probably want to see more EVs sold month to month. Overall, Ford delivered 4,353 EVs in the U.S. in June, down from 6,512 delivered in May.

Total U.S. sales came in at 152,262, down a little from 154,461 units sold in May. That level probably doesn’t surprise investors. Car companies, including Ford, are still dealing with supply-chain problems including a lack of semiconductors.

General Motors

(GM) said it didn’t finish 95,000 vehicles in the second quarter due to a lack of parts.

Of course, the overall market is a reason Ford shares are down. The Dow was off more than 530 points as investors fret about slowing economic growth. Slowing growth is never good for car sales.

Those fears have been with investors for a while. Ford stock is down about 47% year to date.

Write to Al Root at [email protected]