Lightning Strikes: Ford Jacks Sticker of EV Pickup … Again

Do you remember when suits at Ford breathlessly announced their all-electric F-150 Lightning was priced at a sliver under $40,000? Pepperidge Farms remembers – and TTAC does, too. Hot on the heels of a price increase two months ago, the least expensive Lightning now stickers for an alarming $53,749.

That includes a destination fee of $1,795, by the way, which the original sub-$40,000 figure did not. Still, tacking roughly $12,000 onto the price of a vehicle once priced around forty large represents a 30 percent hike. Imagine if GM’s recently introduced Corvette Z06 suddenly jumped to $130K after being touted for ages at a shade over six figures, or if gas prices rocketed from $4.00 a gallon to $5.20 overnight. People would riot. Well, maybe not about the ‘Vette but definitely about the fuel.

What’s the root cause? The usual suspects of inflation, material costs, and supply chain issues. I’m surprised they didn’t mention Covid or that Mercury was in retrograde, to be honest. For what it’s worth, the base Pro trim is the only one in the Lightning line to see a second price increase – for now, at least. Back in the good old days of, well, earlier this year, Ford was mouthing platitudes to economies of scale and parts sharing with other full-sized trucks in its line as a method of holding the Lightning’s price at bay.

Those assertions have gone out the window like rice being scattered at a wedding. Execs are now talking in hushed tones about rising commodity costs and a towering inflation rate. Specifically, the company has proactively warned investors its Q3 earnings will look like a battered hamster thanks to lofty supplier costs and a lack of parts with which to finish vehicles.

Helpfully, the pencil-necked accountants lurking around the Glass House chose to break out Lightning sales from F-150 deliveries, a decision which permits us to learn the company sold 8,760 of the things so far this year and just over 1,900 last month alone. With a total of 467,307 F-Series trucks finding new homes to date in 2022, Lightning represents just shy of 2 percent of that volume. This is about one-third the take rate of the E-Transit compared to total Transit sales: 4,387 vs 68,333.

[Image: Ford]

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