Ford F-150 Lightning gets massive 17% price cut as electric pickup market heats up

It's been a rather tumultuous year for potential electric vehicle buyers as a result of near-constant changes to pricing since Elon Musk's Tesla started a pricing war back in the early days of January. On the other hand, prices for the Ford F-150 Lightning have been steadily rising as the company has struggled to keep up with demand and source affordable raw materials for batteries and other components.

"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, chief customer officer, Ford Model e division.

Now, according to Reuters, Ford has cut the price of its electric pickup truck by almost US$10,000, representing a 17% price drop. The biggest cuts are seen in the Pro base model, with the top-end Platinum trim only receiving a roughly 6% decrease.

Although Ford says that it was only able to do this thanks to improved scale manufacturing and a reduction in the cost of raw materials and components, the price cut comes mere days after Tesla announced that it had completed the first production Cybertruck unit. It's easy to imagine Ford seeing the massive hype around the Cybertruck and trying to pre-empt its impact on the electric pickup truck market by issuing a price cut, even though Ford's Jim Farley has had some choice words about Tesla's peculiar pickup truck in the past.

With the up to 17% price cuts, the base model Pro Ford F-150 Lightning comes in at US$49,995, while the XLT, Lariat, and Platinum trims start at US$54,995, US$69,995, and US$91,995, respectively. Crucially, the most affordable Ford F-150 Lightning Pro trim is unavailable for order for the 2023 model year, but hopefully the new, reduced prices will hang around for the 2024 model year as well.

As for competition, the Rivian R1T currently starts at around US$75,000 for the dual-motor, all-wheel-drive variant, and the Tesla Cybertruck will not hit the market until later this year, but it is expected to land with a much higher price tag than previously indicated. Chevrolet is also in the midst of launching its rather impressive Silverado EV, which will arrive later in 2023 with a starting price of around US$50,000.

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