A Ford all-electric F-150 Lightning truck prototype is seen at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, Michigan, U.S. September 16, 2021
A Ford all-electric F-150 Lightning truck prototype is seen at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, Michigan, U.S. September 16, 2021

Ford Motor limped out of the second quarter with vehicle sales up only 1.8% from last year, falling below analysts' expectations of a larger increase.

On Tuesday, Ford posted its second quarter results for 2022 and declared that its sales had increased by 31.5% in the last year despite a slump of 11% in sales across the auto industry in the same time period. According to the company, the number of retail sales increased by 50% in June alone.

Andrew Frick, vice president, Sales, Distribution & Trucks, Ford Blue touted sales for Ford's line of electric vehicles as well as its F-Series and SUV models for driving growth in the latest quarter.

"Combined, these vehicles represented just over 56 % of our sales in June – up about 8% points from May," said Frick in a statement. "F-150 Lightning was America’s best-selling electric truck in June in its first full month of sales, while our overall electric vehicle sales were up 77 percent over last year.”

Indeed, the F-150 has been a strong performer for Ford with more than 1,837 sold in Q2 2022, according to Ford's data. Electric vehicles, a line of production that has received more investment in the last year, performed well with 4,353 cars sold -- up by 76.6% in the last year.

However, these results come against the backdrop of continued pain in the auto industry. With the disruptions to supply chains cutting into companies’ access to semiconductors and other components, automakers have been warning that the shortages posed risks to their growth for the last year.

Ford was not immune to this reality. Despite posting good results, analysts anticipated that Ford would see a sales growth of between 3.3% and 5.1% rather than the 1.8% it posted.