Ford Motor Company says it is in the home stretch of massive upgrade to its Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Michigan – soon enabling the facility to triple F-150 Lightning production. This level of scaling paired with reduced raw materials costs is now enabling Ford to cut the price of all trims of the F-150 Lightning, delivering MSRPs closer to numbers originally promised when the electric pickup first debuted. But is the price cut purely supply side?
As Ford continues to pivot its global business strategy for the all-electric age, its no wonder one of the first conversions on its to-do list was the F-150 pickup – the best selling truck in the US for nearly 50 years. Not only did Ford successfully create an all-electric version of its most popular model, but did so with specs and a price point consumers ate up – leading the EV to sell out its first tow years of production.
To keep up with growing demand, Ford committed to a global investment of $50 billion to repurpose its production facilities to build EVs – including the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center (REVC) in Dearborn, Michigan. This past March, Ford shared plans to triple Lightning production at Rouge, but while the American automaker was continuing to try and scale, other economic woes rattled its bottom line.
Raw material costs in batteries for instance as well as the costs of the aforementioned facility upgrades did affect Ford – who had to raise the price of its Lightning trims and even had to suspend new reservations at one point to come up for air.
By May, reservations had reopened, and a month later, Ford was reporting it remained on track to reach scale at the REVC by this fall – prioritizing XLT deliveries for new customers. Still, higher prices have stuck with the Lightning models – but as Ford looks to reopen the REVC, major MSRP discounts will coincide.
Ford’s plant upgrade enables lower priced Lightnings
Per news out of Ford HQ this morning, the automaker appears poised to reached scaled Lightning production promised months ago, enabling it to lower the price of all trims for new customers. The
Ford shared that the Rouge facility has been temporarily shuttered to complete the final upgrades toward its complete EV production revamp – enabling an annual output rate of 150,000 electric pickups beginning this fall.
Beginning as early as this October, new customers will be able to build their own Lightning truck to order at a price closer to what was originally promised a couple years ago. Ford cites upgrades to the REVC and improved battery material costs as the catalysts to lower MSRPs, which will now be as follows:
| Lightning Model | Previous MSRP | Updated MSRP | Savings |
| Pro | $59,974 | $49,995 | $9,979 |
| XLT 311A | $64,474 | $54,995 | $9,479 |
| XLT 312A | $68,474 | $59,995 | $8,479 |
| XLT 312A Extended Range | $78,874 | $69,995 | $8,879 |
| Lariat 510A | $76,974 | $69,995 | $6,979 |
| Lariat Extended Range | $85,974 | $77,495 | $8,479 |
| Platinum Extended Range | $98,074 | $91,995 | $6,079 |
In addition to the price cuts above, Ford customers can take advantage of an additional $1,000 bonus if they build their own XLT, Lariat, or Platinum (still no Pros, sorry) Lightning through Ford’s website or dealer network before July 31. Ford Model e’s chief customer officer Marin Gjaja spoke to the new pricing opportunities:
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.
It also important to note that at these reduced prices, most of the Ford F-150 Lightning models (excluding Platinum) may qualify for up to $7,500 in federal tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act. Let’s also not forget that future F-150 Lightning drivers are going to have access to Tesla’s Supercharger network next year. Big wins all around.
Electrek’s take
As we’ve said on Tesla’s many price reductions, the motives aren’t all supply side as Ford has laid out. Auto manufacturers will sell their vehicles at the highest prices the market will bear and it appears that Ford can now out-produce the demand at its previous price points.
Tesla’s Cybertruck is also set to enter the conversation later this year.
We also know that Ford isn’t yet profitable on EVs so cutting prices on F-150s would seem to be a demand-focused change.
Either way, it means lower price points for consumers which we love to see and combined with IRA discounts, this $1000 bonus and other incentives like drastically lowered cost of ownership, will spur on EV adoption.