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Hyundai Motor Group closes to within 1,195 vehicles of Ford in U.S. sales
Ford outsold Hyundai Motor Group by 1,195 light-duty U.S. vehicles in the third quarter and kept the No. 3 spot. Ford links its lower volume to retiring the Escape and Corsair, and that drop is about 58% of the 62,000 vehicles its lead shrank over the year.
The Investor · Invest desk
What happened
- Hyundai, Kia and Genesis together sold 506,200 vehicles in the quarter, a 5.4% gain on the same period of 2025.
- Ford's light-duty sales fell 6.6% to 507,395, a count that leaves out its heavy-duty trucks.
- Cox Automotive had forecast that Hyundai Motor Group would pass Ford for the first time, at 511,421 vehicles to 504,172.
- A supplier disruption stopped F-150 production at two assembly plants at the end of September, and CEO Jim Farley said it has since been resolved.
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Why it matters
- exposure Ford's cushion is only 1,195 vehicles, so F-150 output lost in the September halt and not made up in the fourth quarter could hand the No. 3 rank to Hyundai Motor Group.
- cost Ford's supply problems now hit both earnings and rank. The Novelis fires are a $1.5 billion cost in 2026, and Ford says the cost of the F-150 halt will fit within its $10.0 billion to $11.0 billion adjusted EBIT guidance.
- contradiction Quartz, citing CNBC, says both automakers beat analysts' expectations. Measured against Cox's forecast, though, Hyundai Motor Group fell 5,221 vehicles short, the larger part of Cox's 8,444-unit miss.
Working back from the reported growth rates, Ford sold about 543,250 light-duty vehicles in the year-ago quarter and Hyundai Motor Group sold about 480,266, so Ford led by roughly 63,000 [1][2][3]. The lead is now 1,195 [4]. Of the 61,789 units that disappeared, about 35,855 came from Ford selling fewer vehicles and about 25,934 from Hyundai Motor Group selling more [5][6][7].
Kia supplied most of the Korean gain. Its 8% rise to 236,659 works out to about 17,530 extra vehicles. The Hyundai brand added about 7,190, rising 3% to 246,896 [9][8][8][9]. By subtraction, Genesis sold 22,645 [10]. Cox estimates the whole market shrank about 1% to 4.1 million units in the quarter [19]. Regular gasoline averaged $4.43 a gallon in September, up from $3.20 a year earlier, according to AAA [17].
Ford says its decline was planned. The company said the drop reflected a portfolio transition that included phasing out the Escape and Corsair, and that excluding those two models its volume was essentially unchanged while the industry fell roughly 1% [10]. On the same basis, Ford put its retail share at 12.1%, up about 0.4 points [11]. "We delivered a solid quarter and continued to gain retail share adjusted for the planned sunset of Escape and Corsair," Andrew Frick, president of Ford Blue and Model e, said [12].
If the flat adjusted figure is Ford's real run rate, its reported decline should narrow once the year-ago quarter no longer includes the retired models [10]. From then on, the gap would stop closing from Ford's side. If Kia grows 8% again, that alone adds about 17,500 units, more than 14 times Ford's cushion [8][14]. In my view, the rank now depends more on Kia than on Ford, because the drag from the two retired models ends once they drop out of the comparison. Fuel prices are the risk for Ford. Cox expected hybrid-heavy Asian brands to take more than half of third-quarter new-vehicle sales [18]. Ford's Maverick Hybrid had a record quarter of 27,793 trucks, which is only about 5.5% of Ford's light-duty total [13][13]. If Ford's fourth-quarter decline is bigger than the Escape and Corsair effect, its losses are not all self-inflicted.
The ranking also depends on what gets counted. Ford's 509,764 total includes 2,369 heavy-duty trucks that are left out of the light-duty tally. On total sales, Ford's lead over Hyundai Motor Group is 3,564 [1][11].
What to watch
- Fourth-quarter light-duty totals from Ford and Hyundai Motor Group, the first count since the late-September F-150 halt.
- Whether regular gasoline stays near September's $4.43 national average while hybrid-heavy Asian brands take more than half of U.S. new-vehicle sales.