Ford, GM Feel The Pinch Of The Coronavirus Pandemic, Vehicle Sales Drop

Ford (F) and General Motors (GM) join Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in reporting a drop in first-quarter vehicle sales due to the impact of the coronavirus outbreak.

GM announced that its Q1 sales declined by about 7%, while Ford saw its vehicle sales drop 12.5% for the quarter. Fiat Chrysler reported on Wednesday a drop in quarterly sales of 10%.

For GM, vehicle deliveries reached 618,335 units for Q1, with some dealerships being closed in some states as a result of stay-at-home orders. In other states, dealers have been deemed essential and can remain open to address the vehicle needs consumers such as first responders, healthcare workers, and food supply, and delivery workers may have.

Inventory levels at GM at the end of the first quarter were down about 18% from the year previous to 668,443 units. Ford said its inventory level had a supply of 100 days at the end of March.

Ford sales included 186,562 pickup trucks with F-Series truck sales down 13.1% while van sales were up 5.7% to 54,499 units. SUV sales at Ford also declined by 12.7% for Q1, with the Explorer model increasing by 10.5% and the ST Explorer gaining 32% over a year ago. Mustang sales were also up 6.8% to 18,069 units with the GT350 and Shelby GT500 sales doubling.

“At Ford we feel a deep obligation to step up and contribute in these unprecedented times,” Mark LaNeve, Ford vice president, U.S. Marketing, Sales and Service, said in a statement.

“Our dealers and employees have jumped into action to support healthcare workers, their communities and millions of our customers. Our Ford team is working around the clock on everything from building healthcare equipment, assisting our dealership network and providing our customers peace of mind through deferred vehicle payments,” he added.

Shares of Ford stock were up 0.9091% as of 11:13 a.m. EDT on Thursday while shares of GM stock were down 0.42% at the same time.