Ford earlier this week raised the price of the base Ford F-150 Lightning electric pickup by thousands—for the third time in four months.
Just nine months since first deliveries, that puts the base price of the 2023 Ford F-150 Lightning nearly 40% higher than the original base price for the 2022 model-year electric truck—$57,869, versus $41,669.
That’s for the fleet-focused F-150 Lightning Pro with the standard range battery (and 240-mile rated range)—the same model already marked up by thousands in October. The next-up model, the Lightning XLT with standard range battery, also gets a price hike, to $65,365.
Fleet buyers aside, if shoppers want the extended range battery pack and its 320-mile rating, the cost of entry now stands at $82,869, for the XLT and that requires additional options.
As fuel prices continue to track downward, Ford is also applying another $100 price hike for the destination fee—to $1,895, included in the above prices. Ford had already raised the destination fee for 2023 with the last price hike.
2022 Ford F-150 Lightning
Ford this time pointed to the supply chain—which is what it did in October, and in August. Although automakers appear to be split on whether the worst of those issues are over, an annual survey found that EV battery costs soared in 2022, due to rising raw material and battery component prices. The F-150 Lightning uses battery cells made in Georgia, as part of a joint venture with South Korea’s SK Innovation.
Top Lariat and Platinum versions of the F-150 Lightning appear untouched by this latest price hike. The top Platinum, only offered with the extended range battery, starts at $98,319.
Ford said that it will end EV dealer markups and haggling with new dealer arrangements that start in January 2024. With these price changes it may be providing some level of runway to that. And it might also be lifting the low end of the Lightning lineup ahead of another electric truck due to arrive in 2024.
Ford F-150 Lightning Pro and E-Transit
“We adjust pricing as a normal course of business due to rising material costs, market factors, and ongoing supply chain constraints,” said Ford Pro spokesperson Elizabeth Kraft, in a response to Green Car Reports. Kraft also emphasized that retail order holders awaiting delivery are unaffected by this adjustment, as are commercial and government customers with a scheduled or committed order.
The more puzzling piece of these price hikes, perhaps, is where this positions Ford for what earlier this year sounded like a play to price its EVs like the Lightning for Ford Pro fleet services. Ford executives had suggested that low entry prices for its Pro models stand as an incentive for companies to engage in the company’s even bigger business play: software. With the order backlog Ford faces, that appears to no longer be the priority—at least not for now.
