After decades as America’s dominant off-road vehicle, the Jeep Wrangler sees Ford Bronco take a cut of sales as highly competitive iconic brands battle for customers.
In January, Ford Bronco sales rose 25. 5% year-over-year, while Jeep sales fell 25%.
Jeep’s sales lead fell from 913 cars in November and 470 in December last year to just 3 in January, according to industry sales knowledge received Thursday via Detroit Free Press.
In January, Ford sold 10,170 Broncos (up from 8,101 a year earlier) versus 10,173 for the Jeep Wrangler (up from 13,556), according to industry sales data.
And about 60 percent of Bronco consumers came from outside Ford and more commonly Jeep, Ford spokesman Said Deep told Free Press.
All automakers track where new consumers are coming from to help compare vehicle performance. Any competitive conquest that exceeds 50 percent is highly successful, Ford said.
As the hole narrows, Deep said the Ford team is still opening bottles of champagne.
In 2022, Jeep sold 181,409 Wranglers while Ford sold 117,057 Broncos. The 2023 Jeep has an estimated base value of $30,000 plus shipping, while the 2023 Bronco has an estimated base value of $32,000 plus shipping, according to Kelly Blue Book. The Bronco has a large backlog load.
Ford said Stellantis has a plant in Toledo committed to the Jeep Wrangler generation, while the Bronco and Ranger trucks are manufactured at the same site in Wayne, Michigan. So Ford had to abandon production of one vehicle to build the other before having a plant committed to pumping popular vehicles, he said.
Meanwhile, Ford struggles to keep up with the overwhelming demand for the Bronco.
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In terms of sales, January and February are months of sluggish sales in the industry compared to the highs of December and June. So the numbers are intriguing, said Erich Merkle, Ford’s U. S. sales analyst. U. S.
“We’re a thin layer of paint that beats Wrangler,” he said. “We are striving to fulfill orders. We only introduced Bronco in June 2021, virtually, in the middle of a pandemic. . . Bronco designed with Wrangler in view. It far exceeds our expectations. “
Stellantis, owner of the Jeep brand, told The Free Press on Thursday that the off-road vehicle app continues to grow.
Richard Deneau, a spokesman for Stellantis, noted that the Jeep Wrangler is the best-selling off-road vehicle of 2022 and has no plans to divest ownership anytime soon.
“Nearly a quarter of sales (24 percent) were for the Wrangler 4xe, which is the best-selling plug-in hybrid in America,” he said.
Stellantis maintains that Bronco attracts consumers from others to Ford, with “most consumers switching from the Ford F-150,” Deneau said.
Merkle noted that the vast majority of Bronco customers come from outside Ford and questioned whether customers of Bronco and F-150 trucks are interchangeable.
“One is a lifestyle vehicle for off-road purposes and the F-150, outside of Raptor’s gates, is more for work, transportation or towing,” he said.
Karl Brauer, executive analyst at iseecars. com, said: “Ford’s Bronco was expected to have an impact on Jeep Wrangler sales – the two SUVs compete for the same customer. And while the Wrangler has the old advantage, Bronco has and each can claim functional or technological inventions that the other can’t match. The best news is that after decades of a really cool and capable 4×4 SUV presented by a domestic automaker, there are now two. “
Also in January, Bronco Sport beat its competition Jeep Renegade and Jeep Compass combined by 2870 to a year ago.
Bronco Sport sold 9438 while Compass sold 5678 and Renegade sold 890 in January.
In 2022, consumers purchased 99,547 Bronco Sport SUVs, while Compass and Renegade sold 113,724, according to industry knowledge received through Free Press. Jeep has a forged advantage as Ford tries to close the gap.
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Bronco Sport and Maverick are assembled at the same Ford plant in Hermosillo, Mexico. Combined, the two high-demand cars have maximized their capacity, Merkle said. Lots. Ford has not opened the 2024 Maverick order bank.
Overall, January sales knowledge also showed:
“We have already booked all our (Maverick) orders. It’s a matter of how much you can deliver in a given month,” Merkle said.
The F-series stays strong, adding Lightning, he said. Super Duty is a massive cash generator that has months of orders to build. They are not sales until they are delivered.
By category, Ford saw:
In 2022, Ford saw its overall market share grow from 12. 4% in 2021 to 13. 1%. In the fourth quarter of 2022, Ford’s market share was 13%, up from 15% a year earlier.
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Editor’s note: This story was updated based on the correct number of Ford Broncos sold in 2022.
Contact Phoebe Wall Howard: 313-618-1034 or phoward@freepress. com. Follow her on Twitter @phoebesaid.