The Honda CR-V recorded around 226,114 sales in the United States during the first six months of 2026, overtaking the Ford F-150’s 209,311 units in the ranking of best-selling individual models and opening a gap of nearly 17,000 vehicles. This overtake does not depend on one factor alone. It comes from a combination of industrial, commercial and market dynamics that helped the Japanese SUV at a time when the American pickup faced major production difficulties.
Honda CR-V beats Ford F-150 in first-half U.S. sales
The CR-V starts at around $30,920, while the F-150 requires at least $39,585 in its base version. That gap can influence buyers at a time when American families pay closer attention to purchase costs, pushing some of them toward a compact hybrid SUV rather than a full-size pickup. Honda also benefits from strong customer loyalty and an increasingly important hybrid lineup, tapping into growing demand for efficiency and lower running costs.
Production issues, however, played a major role in the F-150’s result. Difficulties at a major aluminum supplier reduced availability of the model in recent months. Ford has already increased production pace, but it could not fully recover the lost ground in the first half. The company closed the second quarter with 549,200 vehicles sold in the United States and an overall decline of 10.3%.
The comparison needs one important clarification. The CR-V overtook the F-150 as a single model. The broader F-Series family, which also includes Super Duty pickups, reached 357,801 units in the first half and confirmed its position as America’s best-selling truck lineup, with a lead of more than 80,000 units over the Chevrolet Silverado.
Ford now looks to the second half of 2026 with expectations of improved F-150 availability and continued growth from Bronco, Maverick Hybrid and the brand’s large SUVs, which together delivered their best first-half performance in 25 years. The CR-V’s overtake, however, shows how the U.S. market is evolving toward more compact, electrified and accessible models, even in a country historically dominated by pickups.
