Ford’s Poor F-150 Lightning Sales

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Mar 5, 10:52AM EST

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Ford’s Poor F-150 Lightning Sales — © Ford Motor Co.

The Ford F-150 Lightning is supposed to be its EV flagship. It is the electric version of its F-150 pickup, the best-selling vehicle in America for over four decades. That should give the Lightning a built-in advantage. However, Ford has only sold 3,600 in the first two months of 2023. It is a sign of how far Ford has to go as it tries to get Lightning sales into the tens of thousands per month.

It is not clear why the Lightning is doing so poorly. Production has been shut down for weeks because of battery problems. The price of the Lightning has jumped, which happened suddenly and without warning. The least expensive Lightning, known as the “Pro” has a base price of $55,974. With a modest number of options, the price rises to over $65,000, which is hardly a level that most pickup drivers are likely to pay.

Ford has had enough time to get the Lightning out of its plants. It was launched on April 22 of last year. Executive Chairman Bill Ford, the company’s de facto CEO, said it was Ford’s 21st-Century moment. Henry Ford, who launched the Model T in 1908, must be spinning in his grave.

Ford credited several people and organizations that have already failed at their jobs. Bill Ford said, “The stunning anticipation for F-150 Lightning is a credit to the work of our Ford engineers and designers, and the UAW team members who are building these trucks with pride.” UAW chief Ray Curry may want to call Bill Ford and ask what happened.

Ford has had chance after chance for the Lightning’s early days to be a success. It has missed all of them and now has to repair its image as a company that can keep its promises at all.

These are the most fuel-efficient new trucks on the market.

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.