Ford F-Series pick-ups remain the US favourite for 2022, despite sales drop

The Ford F-Series is has extended its run as the favourite pick-up in the US to 46 straight years, with a sales total for 2022 expected to top 640,000 vehicles.

The result, claimed by Ford but awaiting confirmation from an independent body, would also make the F-Series range – from the standard F-150 to the heavy-duty F-750 – the country's overall best seller for the 41st time.

Parked nose-to-tail, the 640,000 Ford F-Series vehicles sold in the US last year would stretch from Detroit to Los Angeles, a distance of more than 3800 kilometres, Ford claims.

The F-150 is currently being prepared for sale in Australia in right-hand drive, with local engineering work ongoing ahead of first showroom arrivals due in the middle of this year.

Ford claimed it sold, on average, one F-Series every 49 seconds last year, an effort that trumps the unofficial total of 519,774 for the second-placed Chevrolet Silverado and 468,344 for RAM.

But despite the solid US numbers at a time of global production shortages, the F-Series totals are well short of all-time records.

The best year for F-Series sales was 2004, when Ford is said to have delivered 939,511 vehicles.

Sales also sat around the 900,000 mark before the COVID-19 pandemic, with 896,765 in 2017, 909,330 in 2018, and 896,526 in 2019.

Last year's total was even down by around 12 per cent on the 726,004 of 2021.

US website TFLTruck reports the F-Series was followed in 2022 by the Chevrolet Silverado (513,354 sales), Ram pick-up range (468,344), GMC Sierra (241,522), and Toyota Tundra (94,429).

One of the strengths of the F-Series is the vast number of models in the range, from the basic F-150 through to the hulking F-750 which can be used as a dump truck, among other heavy-duty applications.

There are eight versions of the petrol-powered F-150 – and a further four electric F-150 Lightning models – with prices from $US33,695 for the XL to $US109,145 for the Raptor R V8, before on-road costs.

The F-Series will celebrate its 75th anniversary this year, and the current F-150 is the fourteenth generation of the benchmark Ford workhorse.