Ford Motor November U.S. Sales Up 13%

Ford Motor Company November U.S. sales increased 13% to 166,865, vehicles compared to November of 2010. Ford said today its retail market share has averaged 15% during the last three months, which means it is close to GM, which has a retail market share of about 16% based on preliminary November sales data. In total share, though, Ford Motor at ~16.5% still lags GM at close to 20%.

Ford incentives remain worrisome at close to $3,000 a unit – the second highest in the auto industry, which average ~$2,300 a vehicle, according to Edmunds.com. As at GM, Ford sales results were largely driven by increased demand for large trucks. F-Series had its best month since 2006 at 48,000 units (+24%), 517,000 year-to-date. Also posting strong sales was the aging Escape – the number two best seller (21,823), which is in the process of being replaced by a rounded design closer to the revised Toyota RAV4 and Honda CRV that the Escape competes against.

The mid-size Fusion, yet again, had a great month at almost 20,000 units easily besting the smaller and relatively expensive Focus and Fiesta models that Ford is heavily promoting –  having modest success with them in California, which given the longstanding Japanese dominance in the U.S.’s largest  auto market is an emerging market for Ford.

Overall, ytd Ford Motor has sold 1,938,666 vehicles, more than 500,000 vehicles ahead of Toyota Motor Sales.