The pessimism around electric vehicle (EV) sales growth is palpable right now. It seems every day there's a new announcement from a major automaker about delaying a new EV launch, pulling back on billions in investment plans, or altering plans for new battery factories.

In other words, 2024 is looking like it's going to be a tough year for EV investors. But someone forgot to tell Ford Motor Company (F 1.24%) EV sales were slowing. In fact, the company quietly checked in with strong sales for the month of May. Let's dig in.

Ford EV sales surge

On the back of three EV models -- the F-150 Lightning, Mustang Mach-E and E-Transit van -- Ford posted its third-best month ever for EV sales in May. More specifically, Ford's EV sales jumped 64.7% in May compared to the prior year. It also wasn't just EVs that posted a surge in sales; Ford's hybrid vehicles also soared a very similar 64.5%. The automaker's hybrids outsell its pure EVs nearly 2-to-1 currently.

Of the three Ford EV models, the Mustang Mach-E posted the slimmest sales gain at 45.9% but also the largest volume in May at 4,255 vehicles. The F-150 Lightning and E-Transit van checked in with respective gains of 91% and 77%. Ford's EV sales also accounted for 4.9% of total sales in May compared to only 3.3% in the prior-year period.

Ford's gains in the EV segment were good enough to make it the clear No. 2 brand in the U.S. EV space behind only Tesla during the first quarter of 2024. These most recent numbers suggest it should maintain this position with recent growth. In fact, for the full year, sales of Ford EVs were up 87.8% and hybrids were up 50.9%.

Good or bad news?

Savvy investors will note that these results are almost a double-edged sword currently. On one hand, Ford needs to scale its EV business to bring down major costs such as batteries. On the other hand, Ford reportedly lost roughly $100,000 per EV it produced during the first quarter and expects total losses from its model-e business division to check in at a staggering $5.5 billion in 2024.

Management isn't sitting by idly, however, as Bloomberg reported the company is cutting orders from battery suppliers in an attempt to curb losses. The leadership team has made a number of additional moves as well, including delaying plans for another electric pickup from 2025 to 2026, and pushing back a three-row electric SUV to 2027 from its original launch schedule of 2025.

Ford also scrapped its Model E dealer certification program effective next month. The goal was to better compete in EV sales by requiring dealers to invest in training, customer education, and charging stations, but it was met with fairly heavy backlash from dealers. This move could enable dealers to jump through fewer hoops to sell EVs.

Another subtle but important move was Ford adopting Tesla's NACS charge port on future EVs. In the meantime, it will offer adapters to access Tesla's 12,000-plus Superchargers across the U.S. and Canada, which will double the number of fast chargers available to Ford EV owners.

What it all means

It's difficult to say Ford is heading in the right direction with its EV business given it anticipates up to $5.5 billion in losses this year, but it is making necessary moves to curb those losses in the near term while also continuing to build scale and lower costs.

In a way, Ford is buying time until it can produce what it hopes to be its biggest hit yet: a new low-cost platform that will produce a small electric pickup and SUV with starting prices targeting $25,000 -- a price point U.S. consumers have been craving.

All told, Ford is pulling back on its EV blueprint by about $12 billion dollars. But it's good news -- despite losses -- that the company's EV sales are improving at a time many EV start-ups and major automakers are dealing with plunging demand.