Invoice Price for 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning - How It'll Be Calculated

Weird Pricing?

2022 Ford Lightning Invoice Pricing Is Totally Weird

October 28, 2021

Ford F-150 Lightning invoice pricing will be unlike any vehicle on the market, based on our analysis of a letter sent to dealers (see copy below). Even though factory invoice pricing is often relatively simple, the highly anticipated electric truck will feature what the brand calls a blended invoice structure based on an incredibly complex calculation.

Normally, buying a car for below invoice would be a good deal. With the 2022 Ford Lightning, the invoice price may end up being unknowable for not only buyers but also for the salespeople tasked with selling it. Although we assumed that Ford would take a page from the Mustang Mach-E, this actually won't be the case.

Ford says the so-called blended invoice structure "combines the elements of a traditional invoice and the e-invoice." The "e-invoice" debuted a year ago with the Mach-E, based on an allowance for each delivery and rewarding dealers compliant with the brand's advertising rules and that remain certified to sell its EVs.

Even though the Mach-E and F-150 Lightning are both EVs, their invoice prices will be calculated differently. With the Lightning, the company will weigh a whopping combination of 8 different factors. Here's a quick breakdown of how F-150 Lightning invoice prices will be calculated when the truck goes on sale next year.

• 1% of MSRP paid to dealers as a delivery allowance for every delivery
• 1% of MSRP for adhering to advertising rules like not listing Lightnings under MSRP
• 1.5% of MSRP as "floorplan assistance" (i.e. financing dealer inventory)
• 0.5% of MSRP for "Tier 2 Pass-Through" for certain marketing costs
• 0.5% of MSRP for "Tier 3 Co-Op," which refers to subsidized advertising
• 0.9% of MSRP for "FCP," which rewards sales achievement targets
• 3.1% of MSRP for compliance with Ford's EV certification requirements
• 1.5% of MSRP for an unspecified "Customer Onboarding Payment"

If you were to look up F-150 invoice pricing, it may not be hard to figure out based on resources available online. With the F-150 Lightning, things won't be quite so simple. Having said that, the blended invoice structure does appear to show us that Ford is creating a new system that rewards dealers for getting things right.

The biggest components that impact a dealer's cost on the F-150 Lightning center on complying with Ford's standards and customer-focused activities. However, the fact that dealers can sell the Lightning for whatever price they like could beg the question: will buying a Lightning really be all that different?

For now, that appears to remain an open question.


Admin update: copy of dealer letter attached:

Can anyone post the "letter sent to dealers" so we can draw our own conclusions? It looks to me like Ford is trying to define "invoice price" as the actual amount a dealer pays for a vehicle, what an idea! I am curious what happens to holdback but am assuming it goes away.

This looks like an itemization of dealer holdback.

So what I got out of this is... Our wonderful dealer sales model bestowed upon us by lobbyists is costing every consumer an extra 10%.

Fordskeptic said:

I see this differently, of course assuming it is not misinformation in the first place.​

​

Under this model dealers are being encouraged by Ford to sell retail orders at MSRP and be satisfied with 10%, plus whatever dealer fees and fees (kick backs) from brokering financing to the consumer. At least that's my take on it.​

​

Click to expand...

I don't see this (unless I am missing something). They get an incentive to not advertise below MSRP, but no penalty for charging ADM and excess fees.

looks like the hold back to me (actual dealer cost BELOW invoice)

sotek2345 said:

I don't see this (unless I am missing something). They get an incentive to not advertise below MSRP, but no penalty for charging ADM and excess fees.

Click to expand...

I see your point but the penalty for charging more than another dealer (ADM & Fees) is nobody will buy it.

Or put another way, for a vehicle that supply meets demand, you have to compete with other dealerships.

I'm not saying that as a consumer I prefer Ford to convince dealerships to no longer advertise discounts. The internet made buying an F150 VERY different than it was much of my younger life. I can shop both inventory and "internet pricing" from the comfort of my chair. But if the dealerships suddenly listed ONLY MSRP, it'll take some legwork to find out who is actually offering the best value equation.

Still, I can see where it is in Ford's best interest to build a better apples/apples sales model. And the venture into EV's and multiple models that have demand outstripping supply offers Ford a new opportunity to try to change things. (better or worse)

Snakebitten said:

I see your point but the penalty for charging more than another dealer (ADM & Fees) is nobody will buy it.

Or put another way, for a vehicle that supply meets demand, you have to compete with other dealerships.

I'm not saying that as a consumer I prefer Ford to convince dealerships to no longer advertise discounts. The internet made buying an F150 VERY different than it was much of my younger life. I can shop both inventory and "internet pricing" from the comfort of my chair. But if the dealerships suddenly listed ONLY MSRP, it'll take some legwork to find out who is actually offering the best value equation.

Still, I can see where it is in Ford's best interest to build a better apples/apples sales model. And the venture into EV's and multiple models that have demand outstripping supply offers Ford a new opportunity to try to change things. (better or worse)

Click to expand...

I would just like to see something that forces (or at least encourages) the sale of custom ordered vehicles at the pricing that was advertised/agreed to when they were ordered. To me this is the biggest issue. When you order something and wait years for it, there is some emotional investment that dealers are exploiting by changing the terms at the last moment. You don't really have a recourse either because you can't shop around -just reorder somewhere else, wait again, and hope they don't do the same thing. Since it seems we will be ordering and waiting for vehicles for the foreseeable future, this needs to be fixed.

Snakebitten said:

I see your point but the penalty for charging more than another dealer (ADM & Fees) is nobody will buy it.

Or put another way, for a vehicle that supply meets demand, you have to compete with other dealerships.

I'm not saying that as a consumer I prefer Ford to convince dealerships to no longer advertise discounts. The internet made buying an F150 VERY different than it was much of my younger life. I can shop both inventory and "internet pricing" from the comfort of my chair. But if the dealerships suddenly listed ONLY MSRP, it'll take some legwork to find out who is actually offering the best value equation.

Still, I can see where it is in Ford's best interest to build a better apples/apples sales model. And the venture into EV's and multiple models that have demand outstripping supply offers Ford a new opportunity to try to change things. (better or worse)

Click to expand...

I agree with you, as a buyer I shop around and find the deals all the time. I have beaten my next door dealer by 10-12k many times. Look at here 3 dealers are selling 3-5% under invoice when many are adding ADM

GarageMahal said:

Can anyone post the "letter sent to dealers" so we can draw our own conclusions? It looks to me like Ford is trying to define "invoice price" as the actual amount a dealer pays for a vehicle, what an idea! I am curious what happens to holdback but am assuming it goes away.

Click to expand...

Here you go:

Administrator said:

Here you go:

Click to expand...

Thanks! And er wow...

If I read this right it says invoice equals MSRP and the calculation varies by dealer so therefore MSRP varies by dealer... field day for the lawyers!

Edit: note that i an reading this on my phone at the bar... I must be wrong but thats what I see

Re: JT's comment above: "If I read this right it says invoice equals MSRP..."

When I was picking up my 2021 Powerboost (at below invoice), I asked to meet with the dealership owner as I wanted to hear how he was going to be pricing Mach-E's. Would his pricing be as aggressive? He stated that Ford was going to "follow the Tesla model" and set dealer invoice price as the MSRP price. So my impression is that the Lightning pricing scheme is somewhat similar: the dealer doesn't get an "automatic" profit from a MSRP sale but rather has to 'earn' the profit by complying with a bunch of Ford expectations. Just my take, of course...

Jack

GarageMahal said:

Thanks! And er wow...

If I read this right it says invoice equals MSRP and the calculation varies by dealer so therefore MSRP varies by dealer... field day for the lawyers!

Edit: note that i an reading this on my phone at the bar... I must be wrong but thats what I see

Click to expand...

Dealer Invoice is the same as MSRP. But Dealer Invoice is not the Dealer cost. So Invoice and MSRP will be the same regardless of the dealer. Dealer cost will vary.

DadBald said:

So what I got out of this is... Our wonderful dealer sales model bestowed upon us by lobbyists is costing every consumer an extra 10%.

Click to expand...

Are you saying that a 10% gross return on investment/profit margin is inappropriate? Remember, the dealerships have fixed costs that must be met irrespective of whether they sell a vehicle or not.

What has most people frosted is the added dealer mark up (now called the politically correct adjusted market value). The point is that selling at MSRP should give the dealers sufficient profit on a per vehicle basis

Administrator said:

Here you go:

Click to expand...

It will be interesting to see what “Customer Onboarding“ means.