As Ford continues to shift more toward a build-to-order model and the automaker also continues to struggle to produce enough vehicles to meet demand amid the current supply chain crisis, it’s also taking more and more retail orders with each passing month. However, some vehicles account for more retail orders than others, as one might expect. According to Ford’s March sales report, the venerable Ford F-Series led the way last month in that regard while also setting a new personal record.
Customers lined up to place a total of 50,000 retail orders for the Ford F-150 and Ford Super Duty, which is a new record by a long shot. Last March, the Ford F-Series accounted for 38,000 retail orders, but it wasn’t alone in this year-over-year explosion, as the automaker took a total of 88,000 orders in March, which is up from 66,000 last year.
It is worth noting that this number declined slightly from January’s peak of 90k retail orders, but it’s notable, nonetheless. It’s also a big improvement over February’s tally of 72k orders, which represented around one-third of the automaker’s sales in that particular month.
The shift to a built-to-order model is something that Ford CEO Jim Farley discussed as pivotal to the automaker’s future last July, particularly as EV automakers like Tesla and Rivian do 100 percent of their business in that manner, selling those vehicles at MSRP with no discounts. A recent study also found that the majority of customers prefer this digital purchasing process over the traditional dealer visit, too.
Source: Ford Authority
