Ford cuts F-150 Lightning costs, taking the most affordable mannequin below $50,000

Ford announced price cuts for its F-150 Lightning truck that may scale back the listed worth on some trims by nearly $10,000. The corporate’s most reasonably priced “Professional” trim is lowered from its earlier MSRP of $59,974 to $49,995, and its highest “Platinum” with extended-range battery has dropped from $98,074 to $91,995.

The brand new costs aren’t the bottom the F-150 Lightning has been. At launch, the bottom Professional trim was announced at $40,000, however only some had been made at that worth. And choosing an extended-range battery added $10,000 to the unique $52,974 worth of the XLT version. Now, the identical mannequin’s MSRP begins at $69,995.

By August, Ford reopened its orders with costs that had been about $7,000 larger than they had been initially. The Lightning’s worth jumped two extra occasions that 12 months — in October and once more in December — taking the beginning worth for the all-electric truck to almost $56,000. Now, costs are dropping again to round what they had been in August. Ford additionally simply dropped prices on its Mustang Mach-E in Might.

The brand new worth cuts come after Tesla introduced the first Cybertruck built at its factory in Texas. Tesla’s pickup truck had seen many delays, and Ford CEO Jim Farley had taken jabs at rival CEO Elon Musk for the gradual manufacturing course of. Farley would later warm up to Musk and conform to undertake the Tesla NACS charging port.

Ford mentioned that worth cuts are doable because of enhancements at its Rouge Electrical Automobile Heart in Michigan. The corporate has an annual goal of constructing 150,000 Lighting vehicles as soon as the plant reopens this fall. Ford additionally says that improved battery uncooked materials prices are additionally to thank for the worth lower.

The electrical automobile market is at the moment in a interval of excessive stock and cooled demand, with many dealerships reportedly holding on to more than 90 days’ worth of stock. This follows an extended interval of excessive demand from the last few years the place it was tough to search out inventory of most main EVs available on the market — together with Ford’s Mach-E and F-150 Lightning.