In an aerial view, Ford pickup trucks are displayed on the sales lot at Serramonte Ford on Jan. 6, 2026 in Colma, California. <\/p>\n
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images<\/p>\n
DETROIT \u2014 Ford Motor<\/a> retained its No. 3 U.S. sales position during the third quarter by a narrow margin over Hyundai Motor, which had been forecast<\/a> to overtake the Detroit automaker.<\/p>\n Ford on Friday reported a year-over-year sales decline of 6.6% during the third quarter to 507,395 light-duty vehicles. That figure excludes its largest heavy-duty trucks, which are classified differently. <\/p>\n That compares to the South Korean automaker, including Hyundai, Kia and Genesis brands, reporting a 5.4% increase to 506,200 vehicles during the quarter.<\/p>\n Both companies performed better than expected. A forecast last week by Cox Automotive<\/a> had called for Hyundai to overtake Ford in quarterly sales for the first time.<\/p>\n Hyundai, including its luxury Genesis brand and corporate sibling Kia, has been making major inroads<\/a> in the U.S. this year. Ford, meanwhile, has struggled with production of its crucial F-Series pickup trucks after two supplier fires<\/a> last year that disrupted production and sales.<\/p>\n Auto sales and deliveries<\/p>\n Ford retains a roughly 89,700-unit sales lead for the year over Hyundai through the third quarter, according to data reported this week by the companies.<\/p>\n Ford on Friday downplayed Hyundai’s proximity in sales, citing Kia and Hyundai brands operating separately in the U.S. despite having a corporate parent. <\/p>\n In addition to the F-Series production problems, Ford’s year-over-year sales comparisons have been tough due to the discontinuation<\/a> of vehicles such as the Ford Escape.<\/p>\n Rob Kaffl, Ford’s head of U.S. sales, said Friday that sales and inventories of F-Series pickups, including its F-150, continued to improve during the quarter.<\/p>\n “Some of the headwinds we had early in the year are kind of behind us, and it’s really setting us up for a really strong Q4 as we move in,” Kaffl said during a media call.<\/p>\n F-Series sales were only off 1.9% during the third quarter, including a 97.1% decline of the discontinued F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck.<\/p>\n The Detroit automaker’s Ford brand was off roughly 6% during the quarter, while its luxury Lincoln brand was down 18%.<\/p>\n Ford’s year-over-year EV sales were off 67.5% through September, including a roughly 80% decline during the third quarter. The automaker is also facing tough comparisons in that category, as it reported record EV sales during the same period last year as demand<\/a> spiked ahead of the Trump administration ending up to $7,500 in federal incentives for consumers to purchase an electric vehicle.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In an aerial view, Ford pickup trucks are displayed on the sales lot at Serramonte Ford on Jan.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":868404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[10060,448,28,122,1301,17760,6145,21],"class_list":["post-868403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-autos","tag-breaking-news-business","tag-business","tag-business-news","tag-ford-motor-co","tag-spdr-sp-500-etf-trust","tag-transportation","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=868403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/868404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=868403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=868403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=868403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}