Ford pulls the plug on the all-electric F-150 Lightning pickup truck

Ford Motor Firm has ceased manufacturing of the all-electric F-150 Lightning, its flagship full-size electrical pickup, and can focus as a substitute on hybrid autos and a future line of smaller, cheaper EVs. Battery crops as soon as supposed to produce Ford vans will now be sending batteries to bolster the electrical grid as a substitute.

Ford says the transfer is following buyer demand, and reflecting the truth that the all-electric Lightning was a money-loser — and Ford, concluded, it at all times could be.

“The American client is talking clearly and so they need the advantages of electrification like on the spot torque and cell energy,” mentioned Andrew Frick, the president of Ford Blue and Ford mannequin e, the corporate’s industrial and electrical divisions. He spoke to reporters on a name on Monday. “However in addition they demand affordability … fairly than spending billions extra on massive EVs that now haven’t any path to profitability, we’re allocating that cash into higher-returning areas.”

The Lightning’s design advanced from what was as soon as a gas-powered truck. And now it should come full circle; an upcoming plug-in hybrid model of the truck will as soon as once more have a gasoline engine, within the type of a generator that can permit the car to maintain driving even when the battery runs out of juice. The all-electric Lightning is useless; the extended-range Lightning is on its means.

The all-electric F-150 Lightning was a giant deal to Ford. It was introduced in 2021 with nice fanfare and an appealingly low worth of simply $40,000. However as soon as it really hit manufacturing traces, Ford was by no means capable of promote it for something near the promised price ticket; the 2025 mannequin began at round $55,000.

The truck was designed to enchantment to mainstream truck fanatics, with no quirky EV styling. It got here festooned with retailers in all places, leveraging the onboard battery so drivers might run instruments at a worksite, energy home equipment at a tailgate celebration and even run their home on it, utilizing it like a generator throughout an influence outage.

The Lightning received 2023 Truck of the Yr from Motortrend, unanimously, and from the North American Automotive, Utility and Truck of the Yr Awards. It was Kelley Blue Ebook’s prime choose for electrical vans in 2024. And it was the best-selling electrical truck in America final quarter, Ford says.

However that class as a complete was struggling, as electrical pickups did not stay as much as lofty expectations — for efficiency and affordability, and because of this, for gross sales. The Lightning, particularly, struggled with reliability. Buyers have been turned off by its restricted vary when towing; why purchase a truck that may’t do truck stuff? 

And, extra to the purpose, Ford misplaced cash on each car, even on the higher-than-promised worth level. EV gross sales have been decrease than automakers had anticipated prior to now few years. Manufacturing prices did not come down as a lot as Ford had hoped.

In the meantime, the Trump administration has pulled a 180 on EV coverage, eliminating incentives and necessities that pushed patrons and automakers alike towards electrical autos.

That features stripping away a $7,500 tax credit score that had made some EVs extra reasonably priced, and eradicating emissions and gasoline financial system requirements that gave Ford — amongst different EV makers — an incentive to maintain unprofitable autos in manufacturing. These guidelines, which required automakers to make their new car fleets cleaner, on common, over time, are being dialed down — which implies automakers could make extra large gas- and diesel-powered vans and fewer EVs with out working afoul of federal rules.

Frick mentioned that “modifications within the regulatory surroundings” have been a part of the “whole panorama” that pushed Ford to discontinue the car and work on the extended-range model as a substitute.

In the meantime, Ford’s all-electric ambitions will probably be smaller — actually, with extra compact and reasonably priced autos on the coronary heart of the corporate’s EV plans, beginning with the midsize pickup truck the corporate introduced in August. Ford is concentrating on a worth level of $30,000 and expects to roll them out roughly a yr from now.

The change in plans will price Ford billions of {dollars} in write-offs and money this yr, however the firm says it should make up for it by changing a money-losing car with ones it hopes will probably be worthwhile.

The pivot additionally leaves Ford with much more battery manufacturing capability than it wants, for the reason that firm had invested closely to construct battery factories to produce the EV manufacturing traces that it is now idling.

So it introduced a brand new line of enterprise: Ford will probably be revamping a battery manufacturing web site in Kentucky to construct batteries for stationary storage as a substitute of for vans. These batteries will be bought to stability the electrical grid — batteries can cost up when electrical energy is affordable, like when wind and photo voltaic are ample, and discharge it when electrical energy is scarce, a phenomenon that is already reshaping the electrical grids in California and Texas.

They will even be bought to information facilities and different industrial prospects, Ford says.