A Little Good News for Ford Investors -- But There's a Catch

Key Points

• Ford's employee pricing campaign lured in the customers.

• Following employee pricing is another incentive push.

• The model you want might not be included.

• 10 stocks we like better than Ford Motor Company ›

If you follow Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F), or perhaps the auto industry in general, you've likely heard about Ford's "From America, For America" campaign offering employee pricing discounts on select 2024 and 2025 models during the second quarter. The deal that helped drive solid results for the company. (More on this in a second.) That incentive is officially over, right as broader auto sales are expected to slump due to tariff effects.

But fear not -- there's good news on another upcoming incentive. Let's look at the results from Ford's employee discounting and what to expect going forward.

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Ford's Mustang Mach-E. Image source: Ford Motor Company.

Everyone loves employee pricing

If investors were counting on employee pricing discounts to bring in consumers, it delivered. As customers cashed in on the incentive campaign, so did Ford, with second-quarter U.S. light-vehicle sales rising 14%, compared to the prior year. That 14% gain was about 10 times the estimated 1.4% industry increase. Furthermore, Ford's market share jumped 1.8 percentage points.

"We blew the doors off the overall industry with our second-quarter sales," Andrew Frick, president of Ford Blue and Model e, said in a press release.

Now, with Q2 in the books, analysts generally expect a slump in automotive sales in the U.S. in the second half of 2025 as tariff effects begin to filter through the industry. We're already seeing some effect, especially on electric vehicles (EVs).

After Ford announced in May that it was raising the price on the Mach-E, which is built in Mexico and subject to tariffs, sales of the vehicle dropped 20% during Q2. Ford's F-150 Lightning and E-Transit sales were down 26% and 88%, respectively. But the good news for Ford investors is that the automaker isn't simply ending incentives, of course. It has the second part of its one-two punch coming.

What's the catch?

Ford begins the third quarter with most Ford and Lincoln models offering no-interest financing for 48 months, no money down, and no payments for the first 90 days. The deal runs through Sept. 2.

It's a strategic move. Ford believes that people have seen increasing costs in other parts of their lives, including higher mortgage rates. Management thinks that forgoing an up-front down payment will enable people to purchase a new vehicle.

Now, there is a small catch for customers and, indirectly, investors. Ford did note that the third-quarter incentive excludes the 2025 Bronco Sport, Expedition, Maverick, Ranger, Transit, Super Duty, and Lincoln Navigator. It also excludes the 2024 Maverick, Ranger, Transit, Super Duty, F-150 Lightning, and Mustang Mach-E, as well as both year models of the high-performance Raptor.

What it all means for Ford investors

A potential catch for investors is that these incentives can erode profits if done irresponsibly. We haven't seen the industry in "bad incentive spending" mode in a long time, and that shouldn't be a concern here, either.

Ford's upcoming incentive campaign is good news for investors after it just finished a strong employee pricing campaign that drove sales and market share higher. This also shows that Ford is in tune with its dealership network -- ask Stellantis how important that is -- and that it's attempting to offset what is expected to be a weaker second half of the year. It's all just a little good news for an automaker's stock that has failed to gain traction with Wall Street.

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Daniel Miller has positions in Ford Motor Company. The Motley Fool recommends Stellantis. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.