Somehow, The Ford Transit Connect Had an Amazing February

From Road & Track

Ford had a somewhat lackluster February 2021. As Automotive News's Michael Martinez pointed out on Twitter, many of the automaker's major nameplates saw steep sales declines, and the company's overall sales were down 14.1 percent. There's one puzzling outlier: the Transit Connect, sales of which were up by 6.3 percent year-over-year. Is the van revolution finally upon us?

I'd like to think it is. How else to explain that F-series pickup sales were down, but Transit Connect sales were up? And how else to explain that sales of the Ford E-series van—which, yes, is still being made—increased 4.4 percent year-over-year?

Sadly, the sales volume doesn't bear out my hopes for a burgeoning trend of people abandoning their pickups and SUVs for smart, sensibly-sized vans. Transit Connect sales may have increased dramatically in February, but Ford moved just 2524 units last month. By contrast, the automaker sold 64,478 F-Series pickups in the same span of time. F-150s still reign supreme at Ford.

In other news, demand for Ford's two hot new models, the Bronco Sport and Mustang Mach E, seems strong, with 5526 and 3793 units sold, respectively. Citing a Morgan Stanley report, Riley Brennan tweeted that the Mach E appears to be eating into Tesla's EV market share. It'll be interesting to see if Mach E demand continues later into the year.

We still await the van revolution.

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