2024 Ford F-150 Lightning Struggles to Sell

Reduction in Production for the Year Ahead

Ford Motor Company is suggested to slash output of its Ford F-150 Lightning in half for next year owing to varying market requirements, as reported by Automotive News.

Based off a planning document revealed to the media, Ford has notified their suppliers to plan for an average F-150 Lightning vehicle manufacturing volume of 1,600 units weekly beginning in January of 2024. This is less than half of the 3,200 models of the Ford Lightning owner they had initially aimed for.

In an official statement, Ford said it “will continue to match production to customer demand,” following the decision to cut production of the Ford F-150 Lightning earlier this year. The Detroit-based automaker attributed this move to supply chain issues, with approximately 700 workers affected by the reduction of a third production shift.

Lightning is produced at the Rouge Electric Automobile Center situated in Dearborn, Michigan.

The fate of Ford’s third production shift is yet mysterious, though we anticipate to get more particulars nearer to the date. Interestingly, Ford had expedited the implementation of the significant schedule back in late 2022, striving to produce threefold as many units. They were aiming to arrive at a total of 150,000 per annum with their all-electric F-150 Lightning. Unfortunately, that now appears to be out of reach.

Despite originally expecting big growth in the electric vehicle market, Ford has been surprised by a decrease in demand for these green models. After two years of eager interest, buyers have become progressively less enthused, causing numerous dealerships to struggle in the sale of EVs and manufacturers to re-evaluate their EV tactics.

Ford recently made a revelation in its monetary report that it was experiencing losses of $36,000 per electric vehicle sale, and accordingly declared they would be paring down investments into EVs.

Amidst this dim outlook, the F-150 Lightning is earning quite the fanfare in the industry. Getting more exact, 4,393 models were sold in November 2023, an increase from 2,062 for the corresponding life last year. While sales may be inching up, they are probably not as remarkable as Ford was dreaming of. It is noteworthy that 53,069 regular F-150s were procured last month.

John Lawler, Ford’s Chief Financial Officer, is assured that the EV (Electric Vehicle) market remains to expand – yet not as quickly as many in the industry projected.

Now that Ford has ceased their appealing incentives, it will be captivating to investigate whether people are still fascinated with the electric truck. In addition, the Lightning must now face its vibrant competitors such as the Tesla Cybertruck, the approaching Chevy Silverado EV, and established rivals like the Rivian R1T.