Ford is cutting prices for its electric F-150 Lightning pickup trucks by as much as $10,000, the company announced on Monday. The automaker's strategy to increase production, combined with lower material costs is behind the cuts, even as supplies of battery-powered models have begun to exceed demand across the EV industry.
With lower costs, auto companies such as Ford and Tesla, which also recently lowered prices, is hoping that will change.
The F-150 Lighting is Ford's second-most-popular EV, behind the Mustang Mach-E, and one of the 10 most popular EVs sold in the U.S. last year.
The news comes after Ford had raised prices for the Lightning several times since its 2021 debut, with the high price of battery raw materials being a leading cause. However, the cost of cobalt and lithium used in EV batteries has since fallen, making price cuts feasible.
Another factor into the falling prices are upgrades being made to the Dearborn, MI factory where the truck is manufactured. The plant will be closed for several weeks while the production upgrades are put in place. Once the upgrades are complete, Ford will be able to produce 150,000 trucks a year, triple its current output.
The lowest-priced base model of the Lightning is seeing the sharpest cut at roughly 17 percent, from $60,000 in March to $50,000 following this week's cuts. The most expensive model, the Platinum Extended, is now down to about $92,000 from just over $98,000.
"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," Marin Gjaja, Ford's electric vehicle chief customer officer, said in a statement on Monday. "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."
According to the market research firm Cox Automotive, via the New York Times, more than 90,000 battery-powered cars and trucks are now sitting on dealer lots, which is about four times as many as a year ago. One of the biggest issues holding many interested consumers back from switching to electric is the price tag, as EVs have historically cost exponentially more than their gas counterparts.
However, if the price cuts can put electric vehicles on the same level as comparable gasoline models, that could soon signal a big change for the industry.
from Men's Journal https://ift.tt/iTUMG1u
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