- Ford says all-electric F-150 Lightning is no more
- Poor sales contributed to the demise
- Company says range extender hybrid is on the cards instead
Ford was the first to introduce a full-sized, pure electric pick-up truck to market, even beating Tesla and Elon Musk to the divisive and fiscally-disappointing Cybertruck.
But much like Musk’s steel-bodied workhorse, the F-150 Lighting also failed to set the sales charts alight.
After indefinitely halting production of the pure-electric pick-up a few months ago due to an increase in demand for combustion engine trucks and therefore plant capacity, Ford announced this week that “production of the current F-150 Lightning ends this year”.
The Blue Oval didn’t go into great depth about why it was pulling the plug, so to speak, only to mention that it has a second-generation model in the pipeline that will opt for an Extended Range Electric Vehicle (EREV) powertrain instead.
In this guise, Ford says the next-gen Lightning will run on pure electricity, harnessing the power of twin electric motors for silent and powerful performance, but with the backing of a “high-power generator enabling an estimated range of 700+ miles”.
That figure is more than double what the heavy and expensive F-150 Lightning could manage, which was arguably the main reason the model was doomed from the start.
Work-shy EVs fail to attract custom
Ford’s electric pick-up ambitions were doomed from the start. After all, pick-up trucks are generally purchased to haul big loads over big distances, whether that’s towing a boat to the shore or loading up with building supplies.
Whatever the reason, additional weight saps modern EV batteries and drastically reduces range – which wasn’t something the North American consumer was willing to compromise on.
In addition to this, the F-150 Lightning was far more expensive than originally planned, with the customer left to shoulder the cost of the enormous battery packs required to give it any sort of acceptable range.
Andrew Frick, the president of Ford Blue, told reporters on Monday that rather than spending “billions more on large EVs that now have no path to profitability, we are allocating that money into higher-returning areas,” according to NPR.
“The American consumer is speaking clearly and they want the benefits of electrification like instant torque and mobile power. But they also demand affordability,” he added.
It also didn’t help that the Trump administration stripped away the $7,500 tax credit for new EVs, resulting in a perfect storm that killed off the F-150 Lighting and a number of other pure electric vehicles from Ford – including a commercial van for Europe that was also axed.
Reuters reported that Ford said it expected to lose roughly $5 billion on its EV business this year, about the same as it lost in 2024. A major reason why it is pivoting back to gasoline and hybrid powertrains.
Ford isn’t the only company feeling the heat as demand for EVs cools, with Porsche also revealing this week that its upcoming Boxster and Cayman sports cars are being reconfigured to house petrol engines, after previously stating these would be pure EVs, according to Autocar.
While it is undoubtedly bad news for EV movement in general, those companies specializing in pure electric SUVs and pick-ups – such as Rivian, Tesla and the upcoming Slate model – will likely be thanking their lucky stars that a major player like Ford has exited the market.
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