Ford recently revealed the returning Ranger Splash and is preparing to make the next Mustang as epic to look at as a supercar. These fan favorites are sure to sell like hotcakes when they arrive, but in the meantime, the Dearborn-based automaker is struggling to sell anything from its current lineup. The problem, as you can probably guess, stems not from a lack of interest from buyers but from a lack of supply on Ford's part. One of its hottest sales successes, the Ford F-150, simply can't be produced because of the ongoing semiconductor chip shortage. If the automaker can't build cars, it can't sell them, and the company's August sales figures are a sobering reminder of how the smallest thing can have the biggest impact.

The automaker has reported a decline of 33.1% in sales in August 2021 as compared to the same time last year. Ford isn't alone here, with the entire US auto sales industry plummeting to an adjusted selling rate of 13.09 million vehicles in August, reports CNBC. This is the worst rate since June 2020, when the pandemic forced almost everyone to remain home. The industry initially rebounded this year with a peak in April of 18.5 million, but now that unfinished cars are filling automakers' storage lots, the sales are just not there. This is especially bad considering that, historically, August is one of the best sales months for the auto industry.

Ford is not alone, and other automakers that provide monthly sales reports like Honda and Subaru have also reported double-digit sales losses. According to J.D. Power president of data and analytics Thomas King, dealers have approximately 942,000 vehicles in stock for retail sale, compared with roughly 3 million before the pandemic first gripped the world two years ago. The F-Series pickups, Ford's bread and butter, have seen overall sales decline by 22.5%. The company's total sales for last month reached 124,176 vehicles, with trucks down by close to 30%, SUVs down 25.3%, and cars down by a staggering 86% compared to August 2020.