Ford Expects To Be Best-selling Vehicle Brand In The U.S. For 4th Straight Year

(RTTNews) - Automaker Ford Motor Co. (F) said Monday that it is on track to sell more than 2.4 million vehicles in the U.S. in 2013, and expects to be the best-selling vehicle brand in the U.S. for the fourth straight year. Ford vehicle sales could also top the 2 million mark for the third straight year.

Automakers are scheduled to report their sales results for the month of December later in the week.

"The great news is that we are not overly reliant on any one segment - we're seeing double-digit sales growth in cars, trucks and utilities," said John Felice, vice president, U.S. marketing, sales and service.

Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford, the second largest U.S. automaker, noted that its vehicle brand sales have widened its lead over second-placed Toyota brand through November to 396,041 units. For the full year in 2012, the Ford brand lead over Toyota totaled 329,677 vehicles.

For the year-to-November eleven-month period, Ford brand U.S. vehicles sales increased 11.8 percent to 2.28 million units from 2.04 million units in the same period last year.

Ford brand retail sales through November were up 15 percent. It is expected to surpass the 1.7 million vehicles mark in the full-year 2013 to be the best retail sales performance in six years, with passenger car retail sales to exceed 600,000 vehicles.

Ford attributed the double-digit sales growth to strong performance in the import-dominated western and southeastern regions of the country. Market share has also grown across the entire Ford lineup of cars, utilities, trucks and electrified vehicles.

The company noted that sales of the fuel-efficient small car Ford Fusion and Ford Fiesta are expected to post new records in 2013. Fusion sales are projected to exceed 290,000 vehicles, and Fiesta sales are expected to be more than 70,000 vehicles.

Ford said it is the best-selling utility brand for the third straight year, with Escape projected to sell more than 300,000 units and Explorer expected to be the best-selling midsize utility vehicle in the U.S.

Sales of Ford's F-Series pick-up truck, America's best-selling truck for 37 years in a row and America's best-selling vehicle, car or truck, for 32 straight years, is looking with the improved U.S. economy and an increase in home construction starts.

"The Ford brand has had more retail share growth than any other brand in the country, with our most significant gains coming from import-dominated coastal markets. With 16 launches next year, we're looking to keep our sales momentum going," Felice added.

In Monday's regular trading session, F is currently trading at $15.34, up $0.04 or 0.26% on a volume of 2.27 million shares.