Ford's electric Mustang Mach-E is piling up on dealer lots as the automaker confronts an EV-inventory problem

• Ford is bullish about EVs. It's ramping up production and investing billions of dollars.

• But the automaker is having a hard time moving its inventory of Mach-E and Lightning EVs.

• Ford dealerships are selling fewer Ford EVs than they were this time last year, per Cloud Theory.

Ford appears to have an electric vehicle-inventory problem.

In a sign that Ford's EV ambitions are still outpacing demand, the company's sales numbers, amount of EV supply, and dealer sentiment all indicate that the Blue Oval is sitting on more Mustang Mach-Es and F-150 Lightning pickup trucks than it can sell.

Ford dealers sold 86.4% of their Mach-E inventory within 30 days in the second quarter of 2022, but that figure — known as a turn rate — dropped to 27.7% in the same period of 2023 even as the automaker had more than twice as much inventory on the market, according to data from the analytics firm Cloud Theory.

Ford's second-quarter sales of the Mach-E fell 21% from last year (10,941 vehicles) to the same period this year (8,633).

Erich Merkle, Ford's head of US sales analysis, said EV sales were up nearly 12% through June. He also said the unsold Mach-E inventory wasn't just sitting on dealer lots because it spent more time in transit. About 52% of undelivered Mach-Es are still in transit, he said.

Deliveries of the Lighting are also up this year compared with last year when production of the vehicle was still ramping up, but the rate of sales appears to be slowing, according to data from Cloud Theory. The firm said that the automaker sold 70% of its Lightning inventory within 30 days in the second quarter of last year but that it had only sold 39.3% of it within that timeframe so far this year.

Ford is targeting EV production of 600,000 vehicles this year. But while it plows $50 billion into the new programs, it's expecting to lose at least $3 billion in the process and likely won't turn a profit on the segment for three years. In fact, it's losing about $58,000 on each EV it sells (not abnormal for the first few years of a launch.) Hefty rebates and steep price cuts to keep up with Tesla's price war aren't helping profitability, either.

At the same time, it required dealers to spend anywhere from $500,000 to more than $1 million to become "EV certified" to sell the expensive, usually unprofitable vehicles.

That's turning some dealers away from EVs

One East Coast Ford dealer told Insider that Ford's current production rate was out of step with customer demand even though the company was bullish about and invested in EVs. (The dealer spoke with Insider on the condition of anonymity out of concern for professional repercussions. Their identity is known to Insider.)

"I think Ford's got a real problem on their hands based on the bets they've made," they said. "I have Lightnings in stock and Mach-Es in stock. We've never had that before."