Ford is ending production of the all-electric F-150 Lightning as part of a broader corporate shakeup of its plans for electric cars, the company announced Monday. In its place, Ford will sell what’s known as an “extended range electric vehicle” version of the truck, which adds a gas generator that can recharge the battery to power the engines for more than 700 miles.
The company did not say when the new F-150 Lightning will be released or how much it will cost.
The pivot will come with a significant price tag for Ford. The company will hit $19.5 billion to reshape its EV business strategy. Most of those charges, including an $8.5 billion writedown of its electric car assets, will be recorded in the fourth quarter. Ford said $5.5 billion in cash will be charged through 2027.
The rollover affects many factories and workers. It also means that Ford’s next-generation all-electric truck — internally dubbed the “T3” — is now dead. The T3 was supposed to be a clean sheet design, unlike the Lightning, which featured electric vehicle technology built into a gas vehicle design. Ford confirmed to TechCrunch that it is also quitting raft for a next generation commercial truck. The current model, E-Transit, will continue.
“Ford no longer plans to produce select larger electric vehicles where the business case has eroded due to lower-than-expected demand, high costs and regulatory changes,” the company wrote in a statement.
The company still plans to release a midsize all-electric pickup truck in 2027, the company confirmed Monday. The platform that powers this truck — born out of a skunkworks program led by former Tesla executives Doug Field and Alan Clarke — will also underpin other future Ford vehicles. Ford said it is still on track to start producing cheaper lithium iron phosphate batteries in 2026. These LFP batteries, which will be manufactured at BlueOval Battery Park Michigan in Marshall and use technology licensed from China’s CATL, will be used in the midsize truck.
“Instead of spending billions more on large electric vehicles that no longer have a path to profitability, we’re putting that money into areas with higher returns, more trucks and hybrid vans, long-range electric vehicles, affordable electric vehicles and entirely new opportunities like energy storage,” Ford President Andrew Frick said on a call with reporters.
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Ford revealed the 2021 F-150 Lightning, two years after it first announced plans for an all-electric Mustang, the Mach-E. Ford unveiled a $40,000 price tag for the Lightning, which was to be a flagship product in the company’s $22 billion push into electric vehicles.
Like most large electric trucks, however, the F-150 Lightning has struggled in the US market. Part of that was because the $40,000 price tag never materialized for most buyers, as that base investment was aimed specifically at fleet customers. Ford has sold about 7,000 Lightnings per quarter over the past two years, peaking at nearly 11,000 in the fourth quarter of 2024.
EVs have faced many headwinds since the F-150 Lightning was first introduced. Tesla has launched a dramatic price war to counter falling sales, which has led to the legacy automakers’ thin (or negative) margins. The re-election of Donald Trump, along with Republicans taking control of Congress, has led to the reversal of many Biden-era policies aimed at encouraging the sale of electric vehicles.
