Ford (F) saw May sales grow 11.2%, largely driven by a near 65% boost in hybrid sales from a year ago. Ford Vice Chair and CFO John Lawler joins Yahoo Finance's Pras Subramanian at Deutsche Bank's Global Auto Industry Conference to discuss the automaker's growth trajectory. Lawler is set to transition full-time into the vice chair position in early 2025, to be succeeded by former Lucid (LCID) Chief Financial Officer Sherry House.

"Ford+ strategy is really about focusing in our customers and their needs. And you start to see that really come through in the segmentation we did in that Ford Pro customers are distinct from Ford Blue customers, which are distinct from our electric vehicle customers and how we're progressing our strategies in each of those spaces, how we're providing them value, choice, and we're moving the business forward," Lawler explains.

He adds that Ford remains in a strong position as the company is third in the US in hybrids, with sales projected to grow 40% this year. Lawler notes that despite slowing demand for EVs, "there was a false signal coming out of COVID, is how quick the demand was going to grow. And that was because the early adopters, they were really excited about having the choice of electric vehicles. Then we get to the early majority. They're not willing to put up with some of the other issues that you might have with an EV around range, etc, like those types of things. So choice is important and it's coming through where you have hybrids."

Lawler states that Ford has plans to improve its performance in the EV space with its second generation of vehicles, hoping to "gain traction" from new costs and performances of electric vehicles.

Catch up on Yahoo Finance's exclusive interview with Ford CEO Jim Farley.

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This post was written by Melanie Riehl