Ford cuts prices of F-150 Lightning by nearly $10K
After a series of big price hikes following its debut, Ford (F) announced on Monday morning that it would be dramatically cutting prices across the board for its F-150 Lightning electric vehicle.
Starting on Monday all trims of the Lightning will get a price cut, with the Pro commercial truck getting the steepest price cut of $9,979 to a new starting price of $49,995 to the top-of-the-line Platinum Extended range getting a cut of $6,079 to $91,995. In a statement to Yahoo Finance, Ford said new pricing will also apply to dealer stock, and any Lightning ordered but not delivered will also be re-invoiced. The new prices for all trims of the F-150 Lightning are listed below.
When Ford debuted the Lightning EV in 2021, the company said the entry-level Pro commercial truck would start below $40,000. But for a number of reasons — including rising material costs, component shortage, and production issues — Ford had to hike up prices considerably, with the Pro model hitting an MSRP of $59,974 just before today’s price cuts, nearly $20K more than the company had promised.
Ford said the upgrades at its Rouge Electric Vehicle Center, combined with falling raw material costs and “continued work on scaling production and cost,” made it possible for Ford to cut prices across the F-150 Lightning line. Ford is pausing the production at Rouge temporarily to complete upgrades that will boost production to 150,000 Lightning trucks by this fall, which the company had originally planned to do.
The dramatic pricing cuts of the Lightning come as the company had a strong sales quarter for the pickup, with sales up 119% in Q2 versus a year ago and up 4.1% sequentially from the first quarter. However, rising inventories across the board for the automakers, including for once-hot EVs, have likely put pricing pressure on the automakers and their dealer partners to cut prices ahead of the fall, when the industry usually releases new vehicles. Ford CEO Jim Farley told Yahoo Finance in May that the industry was likely going to see price pressure for EVs.
This may have led Ford to also reveal that starting today, Ford will offer a $1,000 bonus for the Lightning XLT, Lariat, and Platinum trims as part of a summer sales event going from July 6 through July 3. Ford says qualified customers can get access to 1.9% APR financing through Ford credit.
The price cuts, incentives, and recent increase in production also come only a few months following a battery fire at the Rouge plant, where a few Lightnings were damaged due to a battery defect. Ford and its battery partner SK said they had resolved the issue and restarted production back in the spring.
Pras Subramanian is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on Twitter and on Instagram.
Click here for the latest stock market news and in-depth analysis, including events that move stocks
Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance
