Why are Ford Slashing Production of the Ford F150 Lightning?

The Ford F150 Lightning is supposed to be the flag ship of the Ford EV initiative in the US of A but news today coming from the Detroit Free Press is that Ford is cutting 50% the production of the model in response to slow demand that we reported upon late last year.

There has been a slew of new EV trucks from a myriad of companies hitting the roads of Americaland over the past few years.

Though the pace of new launches has been accelerating there are clear signs that the buying public are not as enamoured with the EV experience as we are told we should be. This is part of the reason that Ford are now slashing the production by half.

The key issue that Ford are facing though is more about the price of their offerings. 

When it was first ‘launched’ in early 2022 it was priced at a mere USD41,700. This was not to be the case though as by the time it hit the dealerships the price tag had swollen to USD52,000. 

Ford the company that had specialised in selling affordable cars to the everyman was now entering the realms of the luxury provider.

In fact, it got worse. To have a vehicle with the sort of options that other manufacturers were offering, you would have to fork out more like USD62k.

The industry is now past the early adopters now and are trying to claw market share from die-hards who will not give up their ICE powered vehicles at least for the foreseeable future. 

Much of this is due to range anxiety but more of it is due to the high prices for EV’s couple with the low residuals you get when the vehicle approaches the end of the battery warranty.

The Ford F150 range sold some 640,000 units in the US last year and thus far, the Ford F150 Lightning has sold just 4000 units in its best month to date, which was December 2023. 

Really it comes down to price. The base model F 150 XL will set you back USD36,570 before any dealership discounts which is a far cry from the USD49,995 for the EV F 150 Lightning. 

It would appear that the future will only be green if you can persuade the consumer to pay much more for your products.