American legacy automaker Ford announced significant price cuts as high as thousands of dollars yesterday for the F-150 Lightning. The company cited numerous factors that prompted the aggressive pricing strategy, including “increased plant capacity, continued work on scaling production and cost, and improving battery raw material costs.”
Factors affecting the price cuts
Ford explained that the recent price cuts were due to many reasons, such as those mentioned above, which includes expanded plant capacity, material costs, scaling production, and battery material cost improvements.
Apart from that, demand might have also contributed to the substantial price cuts. The demand for the F-150 Lightning has subsided sufficiently, enabling Ford to keep up with its reservations. The company is now set to finally allow buyers to specify built-to-order units as early as October.
In addition, the upgrade shutdown of the company’s Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Michigan has now reached its final two weeks. As soon as the factory reopens on July 31, Ford will be able to reach an annual production capacity of 150,000 units by the start of the fall. This schedule aligns with the company’s October timeline for customers’ built-to-order pickup trucks.
Price changes
The 2024 Ford F-150 Lightning’s cheapest “Pro” trim now costs $49,995 from its prior MSRP of 59,974, indicating a reduction of $9,979.
Meanwhile, the top trip Platinum Extended Range’s price dropped by $6,079 from $98,074 to $91,995.
The F-150 Lightning models can also benefit from federal tax credits of up to $7,500 under the Inflation Reduction Act.
“Shortly after launching the F-150 Lightning, rapidly rising material costs, supply constraints and other factors drove up the cost of the EV truck for Ford and our customers. We’ve continued to work in the background to improve accessibility and affordability to help to lower prices for our customers and shorten the wait times for their new F-150 Lightning.”
Marin Gjaja, Ford Model e’s Chief Customer Officer
Tesla-Ford competition
Tesla’s aggressive price cuts for its electric vehicle portfolio sparked a price war in the industry. Unsurprisingly, its closest rival Ford responded with substantial price reductions for the Mustang Mach-E by about $6,000.
Additionally, the Musk-led automaker announced plans to offer three Cybertruck variants, with prices ranging from approximately $40,000 to $70,000. Later, the automaker took the prices off the website, where customers can choose whether to spend $100 and order.
Another significant development has also been made public recently, with the two automotive giants announcing a partnership on charging technology. Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Ford CEO Jim Farley revealed plans in March to share the former’s enormous Supercharging network. With this, Ford EVs will have access to Tesla’s over 12,000 Supercharger stations in the US and Canada by next spring.
See Also:
- 2023 Ford F-150 – Review, Pricing, and Specification
- 2023 Ford F-150 Lightning: Tremendous price hike, same high value
- MotorTrend awards Ford F-150 Lighting as the 2023 Pickup Truck of the Year
- Sunrun unveils its fleet of Ford F-150 Lightnings
- Ford’s EV sales declined 2.8% in Q2, despite F-150 Lightning’s strong performance
As EV-a2z previously reported, there is currently a high inventory level in the US electric vehicle market, indicating a demand slowdown. Many dealers keep units on hand for longer than 90 days. Notably, these high inventory levels occurred after an extended period of robust demand over the past years. At that time, customers had difficulty locating stocks of the most popular EVs, such as Ford’s Mach-E and F-150 Lightning.
