(Reuters) -Ford Motor Co reported a 6.8% fall in 2021 U.S. vehicle sales on Wednesday, as the automaker struggled to deliver its cars and trucks due to lingering supply-chain bottlenecks and a global chip shortage.
The Detroit automaker sold 1,905,955 vehicles in 2021, ending up behind new U.S. leader Toyota Motor Corp and rival General Motors Co. Ford had sold 2,044,744 vehicles a year earlier.
Ford’s shares extended losses to trade down about 3% after the sales report.
Total U.S. light vehicle sales for 2021 were just under 15 million, according to Wards Intelligence, below the five-year average of 17.3 million from 2015 to 2019.
Sales of Ford’s Mustang Mach-E electric crossover were 27,140 for 2021. The company plans to triple annual production of the electric crossover to more than 200,000 by 2023, to meet better-than-anticipated demand.
Ford has been focusing on its EV strategy and said on Tuesday it would nearly double annual production capacity for its red-hot F-150 Lightning electric pickup to 150,000 vehicles.
Shares of Ford gained about 136% in 2021, outperforming GM’s 40.8% rise and EV leader Tesla Inc’s 49.7% jump, as investors bet that buyers will lap up the electric version of the F-150.
(Reporting by Nathan Gomes and Aishwarya Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)
