Ford Lightning Gets Competition

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jul 17, 9:06AM EDT · Published Jul 17, 7:30AM EDT

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Ford Lightning Gets Competition — © Tesla ASM Lineup of Vehicles (CC BY 2.0) by Steve Jurvetson

Ford’s F-150 Lightning finally has real competition. Tesla has started to produce its Cybertruck. Which is the better pickup? Several “tests” show that it is yet to be determined. (These are the 15 most fuel-efficient new trucks.)
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Ford has set an annual Lightning production pace of 150,000 by year’s end. However, it sold only 4,466 in the second quarter. That may be an issue of supply. The Cybertruck’s production is at least two years behind expectations. As production ramps up at Tesla, it is too early to say how much that will affect sales. Founder Elon Musk wants to press production to 250,000 units a year.
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Who has the marketing advantage? Ford has an installed base of millions of gasoline-powered F-150 pickups, This is a ready-made market for Lightning sales. Ford also has a huge dealer network. Musk says dealer networks are not essential to sales and service. Many customers, used to working with dealerships, may not take that to heart.

The Cybertruck will benefit from Tesla’s mystique. Tesla has a reputation as the most advanced car company in the world and for making the most advanced products. One study has put Tesla’s brand value at $66 billion, at the top of the industry. Ford ranks in eighth place with a brand value of $22 billion, slightly behind smaller Honda.
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Tesla’s market cap, a proxy for sales and profitability, is $892 billion. Ford’s is $60 billion. Tesla’s market value is up 165% this year, and Ford’s is 28% higher. While these are not a proxy for pickup sales, they are a proxy of what Wall Street believes will be the long-term unit sales as the global electric vehicle market overtakes the one for gasoline-powered vehicles.
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When both the Cybertruck and the Lightning hit full potential production levels, it will become clearer which will do better. Inventory will be one measure. The price each can fetch will be another.

One certain thing is that Ford finally has competition.

UPDATE: Note that Ford has just announced price cuts of at least $6,000 on Lightning models.

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.