Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) saw a 23% increase in sales in its Ford, Lincoln and Mercury brands for the month of may.
The Detroit-based automaker is currently in the process of closing the sale of its Volvo brand to Chinese automaker Geely and has announced that it would be winding down its Mercury brand.
37% of Ford’s sales came from fleet sales and noted that much of those sales were trucks that were sold to commercial customers, rather than car sales sold to rental companies.
Ford’s numbers were good enough that it raised its production target for the second quarter by 15,000 vehicles or about 2%, putting Ford on track to produce 640,000 vehicles. Ford also gave its first estimate of third-quarter production, putting it at 570,000 vehicles, which would be 16% above year-ago levels.
Taking the U.S. automotive industry as a whole, vehicle sales increased 19% from the anemic sales levels of May 2009, according to data from Autodata. The final number was slightly higher than even some of the most bullish predictions.
