Ford cut the price of the electric version of its signature F-150 pickup truck by as much as $10,000 as a glut of expensive electric vehicles have begun piling up at dealerships, The New York Times reported Monday.
The number of unsold battery-powered trucks and cars has shot up to 90,000 — roughly 4 times as much as last year — which is enough to last 103 days at the current pace of sales, more than double the industry-wide average, according to the NYT, citing data from Cox Automotive. Ford’s Lightning first entered production in spring 2022, but between supply chain issues and demand that far outpaced production, the company raised the price repeatedly by a total of roughly $20,000, with retailers charging several thousand dollars more than Ford’s suggested retail price. (RELATED: Ford Plans More Mass Layoffs After Getting Multibillion Dollar Loan From Biden: REPORT)
The resultant price cuts will make almost all Lightning models — except the high-end Platinum model — cost less than $80,000, which makes them eligible for the $7,500 consumer tax credit for electric vehicle purchases offered under President Joe Biden’s signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act, according to Ford Monday. The company plans to triple Lightning production by the end of the year to 150,000 per year at its Michigan-based Rouge Electric Vehicle Center.
Full details of the Ford F-150 Lightning ⚡️price drop: pic.twitter.com/Pi7aAHZPMK
— CarDealershipGuy (@GuyDealership) July 18, 2023
“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 at Ford Model e, said in the company’s press release 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.”
The price cuts come amid an ongoing race to the bottom between Tesla and Ford in a bid to coax buyers into pulling the trigger on an electric vehicle, The Wall Street Journal reported. Electric vehicle prices have fallen by roughly 20% from June 2022 to June 2023, while prices for traditional gas-powered cars held roughly steady, according to the WSJ, citing data from Cox Automotive.
The company is currently sitting on a sizable inventory of unsold electric Mustang Mach-E SUVs, according to the NYT. At the start of the month, Ford dealers had 16,400 Mach-E’s in stock, roughly 2,000 more than they had managed to sell since the year began.
Ford is currently losing tens of thousands of dollars per electric vehicle sold, and weeks ago announced the third in a series of mass layoffs that began last summer. The company’s joint venture with Korean battery maker SK On received a record-breaking $9.2 billion loan from the Biden administration to build a plant in Kentucky.
Ford did not immediately respond to a Daily Caller News Foundation request for comment.
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