Ford tops 2mn sales in US for 2nd year

Ford Motor Co’s namesake brand will top 2mn vehicles in US sales this year and its Focus compact car was the top-selling model line worldwide through September, the automaker has said.Ford will be the only auto brand to exceed the 2mn sales level in the US this year, the Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker said in a statement. Ford models are on track to reach 2.2mn US sales up from 2.1mn last year, Erich Merkle, the company’s sales analyst, said in an interview.Chief executive officer Alan Mulally is trying to boost profits by selling the same models globally, rather than different versions for various regions. His One Ford strategy aims to leverage the second-largest US automaker’s economies of scale to improve profit margins. Ford earned $4.07bn in the first nine months of 2012, down from $6.6bn a year earlier as losses overseas dragged down profit.“Over the last three years, we’ve been moving toward global vehicles,” Merkle said. “And it’s playing out very well here in the US, where the Focus will be up 40% this year, and in Asia, where Focus is one of the best- selling vehicles in the region.”Including its Lincoln luxury line, Ford will remain the second-best selling automaker in the US for 2012, behind General Motors Co, Merkle said. While Toyota Motor Corp has narrowed the gap with Ford this year, the Toyota City, Japan-based automaker trailed Ford by 141,746 cars and light trucks through November, according to researcher Autodata CorpIn addition to the Focus, Ford said its F-Series pickup line is the world’s fourth-best selling nameplate.