At the beginning of this year, the Ford Mustang Mach-E was not only one of the least popular EVs in the US but also one of the least popular new cars overall. It became increasingly clear when Ford had to give them away at such steep discounts: the high price of EVs is holding back the business. The Mach-E got off to a great start, but between its second and third years on the market, it lost a lot of steam and only sold a little more. This meant that Ford would have a lot of extra 2023 models, which would leave dealers with too many cars at a time when demand for EVs seemed to be leveling off in 2023. Car Edge says the Mach-E had a market day stock of 404 units, which made it the US’s slowest-selling EV at the time. Along with these other things, Ford had to work quickly to boost sales after losing the chance to get the $3,750 federal tax credit in January. In January, it did that by lowering the price of the Mach-E by $5,900 and giving crazy deals like 0% APR financing and a $3,000 discount. Ford still needs to release its Q1 sales numbers, but the general picture shows that the discounts are making a big difference. Automotive News talks to data researchers at Cloud Theory and learns that inventory has dropped by 9% in the past month, while Mach-E’s sale rate has almost tripled. In particular, the Mach-E’s turn rate has gone from 7% to 33%. A turn rate is the percentage of cars sold in a certain amount of time. Ford also said that sales went up by 64% in February, which was better than January, when sales dropped by half. It is also thought that Mach-E’s turn rate is still lower than the average for the industry, which is 45%. However, the Mach-E’s return is important for understanding what caused last year’s much-talked-about EV sales stall. It means that demand needs to be met at a lower price point and that the problem with demand is only coming from the oversupplied top market. Ford’s “skunkworks” EV section is already making an EV for that market, of course. This is very important if you want to compete with Tesla’s sales and the new threat of Chinese electric vehicles. Even though the federal government has been working hard to stop it, Chinese electric cars will finally be able to enter the country. The best protection is to own a cheap EV.
