Ford F-150 Lightning to Face Challenge From China

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Apr 4, 6:50AM EDT

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Ford F-150 Lightning to Face Challenge From China — © jetcityimage / iStock Editorial via Getty Images

China’s electric vehicle (EV) giant BYD, the largest company in the sector, will launch a pickup. CNBC points out that BYD does not sell vehicles in the United States, but industry experts believe that the challenge is temporary. As Japanese cars made it into the United States half a century ago, Chinese EVs will come too, even if it requires them to build plants in Mexico.

The likely challenge from BYD is that it has kept production costs low enough to sell EVs for as little as $10,000. It cannot sell a pickup for a price that low, but the F-150 Lightning is expensive. If BYD can price its pickup below that, Ford will have a problem. (After it fell 58%, Wall Street expects this EV battery stock to soar 230%.)

CNBC points out that it could take on the entire EV pickup sector: “The pickup will look to compete with the likes of the Ford Ranger and F-150 Lightning, the Toyota Hilux and the Tesla Cybertruck.”

Ford and other legacy car companies that want a large slice of the EV business face two challenges. One is Tesla, the industry leader. Another is China, which has over half a dozen financially viable EV makers.

Additionally, every major car company globally has entered the EV market. In particular, Ford’s primary competitors to the F-150 (Ram and the Chevy Silverado) will launch electric versions next year.

F-150 Lightning sales have been slow. Now, it faces growing competition, some of which will eventually come from China.

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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.