Ford is celebrating an impressive production anniversary: the 40 millionth F-series rolled off the assembly line in Dearborn.
The corona pandemic, the semiconductor and supplier crisis largely caused by it and the resulting crash in sales figures: The global automotive industry has seen better days than the current ones. Nevertheless, there is always cause for joy. Not until the end of the year at Toyota. The Corolla, the brand's worldwide bestseller, celebrated a crazy production anniversary: Since 1966, a whopping 50 million units of the compact series have rolled off the assembly line.
Now, a few weeks later, the number two reports that the counter has reached a round eight-digit value: At the Ford headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan, the 40 millionth representative of the F series rolled off the assembly line. The example honored now is an F-150 in the Tremor trim line, sporting the aptly named "Iconic Silver" color. "It's now on its way to a customer in Texas to get to work - because that's what Ford trucks do," the manufacturer said in an accompanying statement. Ford started production of its F-Series in 1947; a year later the F-1, F-2, F-3 and F-4 went on sale. This first generation only existed for two years. The successor came in 1950 and Ford is currently offering the 14th generation of the platform truck.
Long run to number one
Incidentally, it took a while for the truck to conquer its top position: 45 years ago it became the best-selling pick-up in the USA and five years later the most successful car of all on the market there. The F-Series has cemented its status as America's number one ever since; its sales figures are stable 250,000 to 400,000 units per year above those of its traditional competitors Ram and Chevrolet Silverado. The fact that the F-150 Lightning , as the first purely electric pick-up from the major US manufacturers, is also in pole position in this respect should further fuel the success.
Incidentally, the VW Golf is third in the global ranking with a good 36 million units sold to date. He should stay there for the time being, and the podium finishes here seem to be set in stone for the time being. If you look at the annual number of new registrations and consider the last representative year 2019 - because it was only marginally influenced by the corona pandemic - the Corolla has moved further away at the top: With a good 1.2 million units in the reference year, it was ahead of the F- Series (almost 900,000 new registrations) and well ahead of the Volkswagen (almost 690,000 units).
Conclusion
In normal times, the Ford pick-up would have reached its best mark much earlier: Due to the lack of chips, its production was on hold for much longer than that of many other models. But as is well known, the VW Golf was also badly hit by this crisis. Incidentally, we are happy to accept bets as to when the first Tesla model will be able to show such production figures.
