The Ford F-Series is America’s bestselling truck for the 45th year straight
Photo: Ford
Even in our let’s say precarious existence, there are just some things that are a foregone conclusion. One such foregone conclusion: the fact that the Ford F-Series is once again America’s bestselling truck for the 45th year in a row.
Ford made the declaration last week when it revealed its November sales numbers, which were up 5.9 percent year-over-year at 158,793 vehicles. A huge part of that leap comes from the F-Series’ 14.6 percent sales increase from November 2020, totaling 60,418 trucks delivered last month.
With November’s sales, Ford has moved 663,508 F-Series trucks throughout the year. Ford happily notes that this puts the gap between the F-Series and the Silverado at 144,049 trucks, an insurmountable gulf that will put the Blue Oval atop the standings for an incredible 45th straight year.
The Ford F-150 Lightning has sparked (heh) a whole lot of interest
Photo: Ford
The F-Series may be 45 years into its winning streak, but Ford may as well just be getting started. Next spring marks the hotly anticipated launch of the first-ever Ford F-150 Lightning, which has already garnered nearly 200,000 reservations since May.
Ford anticipates that around 80 percent of current reservations will translate to sales when the truck launches next spring. Also noteworthy is the fact that around 75 percent of those reservations come from customers who are new to the Ford brand.
The early success of the F-150 Lightning puts Ford in the driver’s seat in the electric pickup segment, which seems more key than ever to wider EV adoption. Arguably its biggest competitor, the Silverado EV, debuts in January. Other competitors like Rivian, GMC, and even Tesla have less cachet with potential buyers according to consumer studies.
Ford offers the 2021 F-150 with a class-exclusive full-hybrid V6 — the award-winning 3.5-liter PowerBoost — which has also helped drive impressive electrified vehicle sales. Customers bought 4,767 F-150 PowerBoost trucks in November, accounting for more than one-third of the 11,116 electrified Ford vehicles sold during the month.
Ford has a runaway hit with the new Maverick
Photo: Ford
Ford’s other new truck, the Maverick compact, will also play a significant role in supplementing F-Series sales. Since its initial rollout in September, the Maverick has seen deliveries totaling 7,228 trucks through November. That includes initial deliveries of trucks powered by the standard 2.5-liter hybrid engine, which began hitting dealerships last month. The 2022 Ford Maverick Hybrid has officially sold out, and orders will reopen later next year for 2023 models.
The Ranger, still going strong with 87,763 sales thus far in 2021, will transition to the latest generation for the 2023 model year. Ford revealed the next-gen Ranger last month for international markets and will likely confirm plans for the U.S.-spec truck sometime in 2022. These developments, paired with the 45th year of industry-best performance for the F-Series, have Ford poised to maintain its standing as the planet’s biggest truck maker through the decade and beyond.
Kyle S. Johnson lives in Cincinnati, a city known by many as “the Cincinnati of Southwest Ohio.” He enjoys professional wrestling, Halloween, and also other things. He has been writing for a while, and he plans to continue to write well into the future. See more articles by Kyle.
