Ford Motor Company raked in more earnings than expected during the third quarter of this year, largely on the backs of its best-selling Ford F-Series trucks. In fact, the automaker is on track to sell more than 900k Ford F-series pickups this year, or about 2,500 units per day on average, even as the average transaction price has risen $3,100 to $45,500.
Assuming the best-selling Ford F-Series doesn’t fizzle out during the fourth quarter, the company could end the year with $41 billion in revenue from F-Series sales alone.
“F-Series always plays an important role for the company – that’s one of our precious franchises,” Ford Chief Financial Officer Bob Shanks told reporters Thursday.
For 2015, the light-duty Ford F-150 eschewed automotive tradition and donned a lightweight aluminum-alloy body, helping it shed roughly 700 pounds. The move was a gamble, as aluminum panels are much more difficult to repair than steel ones, more expensive to produce, and more susceptible to damage.
The gamble paid off, and for 2017, the Ford F-Series Super Duty was also redesigned with an alloy body. For 2018, the automaker has released a new-and-improved version of the thirteenth-generation F-150 – one that attempts to take the truck’s efficiency even further with new dual-injected gasoline engines and a 10-speed automatic transmission. There’s even a diesel option on the way.
“We think we’re in a really good position,” Ford Motor Company CEO Jim Hackett told analysts during a Q3 earnings call. “[The new] Super Duty is doing extremely well and we had counted on that. We’re very happy with that franchise.”
(Source: BloombergQuint)
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