Not a single "not true", except from Brian, not AI...

[davehu]

Ford's been in business for a century. They made a great play for the Lightning. I LOVE mine., but.... they'd be nuts if they didn't consider dropping it. Expectations of 150,000 per year. Reality just 25,000. The gamble is that over the long haul can they make money on it. But there is a lot that goes into that calculation. Time will tell.

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[EV Engineer]

Honestly from a business standpoint it probably makes total sense right now.

The aluminum plant fire probably pushed this 6 months earlier than planned but this was coming.

I bought a brand new 2023 in 2025…….and I suspect the dealer took a bath on the truck. If they have 1+ year inventory they probably have enough lightenings to get them close to the end of 2026….if you want a lightning there is one waiting for you.

New launch in late 2027 with orders earlier. The wont miss a more than a few months without an EV truck option.

This is not a doomsday scenario. Ford is moving into next EVs after learning a lot from these.

I’d rather have a discontinued truck and FoMoCo around than have FoMoCo go under because they wanted to sell another 50k lightnings…….

 

[EVO]

Maybe I'm wrong. I hope I am. I'm just an idiot on the Internet reading tea leaves.

The F-150 plant in claycomo has been closed down for 3 weeks due to lack of aluminum and chips. The plant in Kentucky is down to one shift as is the plant in Michigan. These are the F-150 plants. All of them share an aluminum body since they can't get aluminum right now. Everything's at a standstill. No tea leaves just facts.

 

[Yellow Buddy]

Its not pretentious, blends into trucks - but perfoms amazing. All vehicles have downsides but overall Ive never had a bad drive in my truck, its fun and I love using it for real life things and knowing its going to be fine.
@Ford Motor Company Just upgrade battery tech, go 800V, NACS chargers, and get some American employees working on that software.

I just went back to a R1T and I'm quickly realizing the value of blending in. No, I don't want to have a conversations with you about my 3 year old truck at 12am in the rain. I just want to sit in my car, nap while I grab some electricity so I can continue on my way.

Also, as someone who spends a lot of time on the road, the NACS port isn't living up to its hype. I know how to go buy NACS -> CCS adapters. Unfortunately the Tesla SCs that are open to us aren't as convenient as those open to Teslas, on long trips I found myself using a mix of EA, EVGo, and Tesla still to avoid the extra overhead of charging or getting annoyed passing half a dozen Tesla stations I couldn't use after I had to stop earlier than I needed to in order to charge. In time when everyone is on NACS it would be great, but right now it's more hype than it's worth.

 

[EV Engineer]

The more I think about this the less I care to be honest. And I also am not sure how true it is.

The Ford F150 Lightning sales really are not that bad in my opinion. Nowhere near what Ford predicted (150k / year), but it is still a fairly popular model. October YTD 25' sales are 25k. That is within the same magnitude of all Lincoln models, the heavy duty trucks, and the ford mustang.

I think they're just not able to sell them at high MSRP like they'd hope which each sale hurts their accounting books.

This may all just be smoke with some validity given the Lightning is on pause because of aluminum.

 

[EV Engineer]

Also, as someone who spends a lot of time on the road, the NACS port isn't living up to its hype.
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Agree 1000% with this. I think Ford again made the right call keeping CCS for a few more years. CCS / NACS are about equal in charging options currently. You need an adaptor either way in today's market. Ford Navigation sends more people to CCS chargers by current software standards and many Tesla chargers in my area are still V2 which creates a lot of confusion.

CCS with a NACS adapter is more convenient for probably the next 3 years or so. Doesn't make sense to retool a factory for this right now. Also seems most new chargers now (Ionna etc) are doing a 1/1 NACS and CCS so CCS with NACS adapter may be viable for another 10+ years.

It's great they made a standard, but this will take a decade to become significant.

 

[02Reaper]

For some insight on whether to believe the mass of articles on this the last few days or believe the Ford rep that post's in here, maybe go back and look at the Ford rep's posts.....I think that's a great indicator of what the Ford rep really knows....To save you the trouble, it ain't much.

 

[davehu]

For some insight on whether to believe the mass of articles on this the last few days or believe the Ford rep that post's in here, maybe go back and look at the Ford rep's posts.....I think that's a great indicator of what the Ford rep really knows....To save you the trouble, it ain't much.

Brian (not AI) doesn't run the company he just works there.

 

[djwildstar]

since all this started, not a single public "not true" from Jim Farley or Bill Ford or spokesperson, ...

Some of the more-reputable news outlets have shared a quote from a Ford spokesperson they expect to re-start production at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center at some point in the future. According to those reports, Lightning inventories are good -- and my limited checks support that: I see over 90 Lightnings on dealer lots within 50 miles of Atlanta: a couple of Platinum, a few Lariat and XLT trims, and plenty of Flash.

I've heard from some sources that people who have ordered 2025 Lightnings that have not yet been produced (e.g., fleet buyers who have an as-yet-unfilled orders for 2025 Pros) are being advised to work with their dealer change their order to the 2026 model year. This also suggests that Ford expects to keep the Lightning line down through the end of the year, but has not definitively cancelled the Lightning going forward.

From a strategic point of view, it seems short-sighted to me that the carmaker who has the single best-selling BEV pickup in the US to abandon that market position to their competitors.

 

[02Reaper]

Brian (not AI) doesn't run the company he just works there.

True. He doesn't know....Heck look at Farley. He will give a statement one minute, then the next things have changed a full 180. They've gone from all in to scaling back, to scaling back more. Regardless of the situation, here we are.

 

[K6CCC]

Also, as someone who spends a lot of time on the road, the NACS port isn't living up to its hype. I know how to go buy NACS -> CCS adapters. Unfortunately the Tesla SCs that are open to us aren't as convenient as those open to Teslas, on long trips I found myself using a mix of EA, EVGo, and Tesla still to avoid the extra overhead of charging or getting annoyed passing half a dozen Tesla stations I couldn't use

Certainly not the case here. Granted, I am not on the road a lot, but I have DCFC charged 16 times when away from home in the 8 months I have had my Lightning. 15 of those were at Tesla and one E.A. The one E.A. was in Baker, CA because the Tesla SC was not open to us, however there is now a second Tesla SC in Baker that I have used once. Without doing a detailed count, my poking around PlugShare shows that around 3/4 of the Tesla locations are open to us.

The biggest advantage in my opinion of the Tesla locations is their size. Most of the non-Telsa locations are less than 6 stalls whereas most of the Tesla locations are dozens. Far better chance of getting a stall. Usually less expensive too.

BTW, I have plotted several longish trips that I expect to take next year (one to Colorado Springs and one to Tucson, AZ) and both have plenty of Tesla SC locations open to us along the way.

 

[Yellow Buddy]

Certainly not the case here. Granted, I am not on the road a lot, but I have DCFC charged 16 times when away from home in the 8 months I have had my Lightning. 15 of those were at Tesla and one E.A. The one E.A. was in Baker, CA because the Tesla SC was not open to us, however there is now a second Tesla SC in Baker that I have used once. Without doing a detailed count, my poking around PlugShare shows that around 3/4 of the Tesla locations are open to us.

The biggest advantage in my opinion of the Tesla locations is their size. Most of the non-Telsa locations are less than 6 stalls whereas most of the Tesla locations are dozens. Far better chance of getting a stall. Usually less expensive too.

BTW, I have plotted several longish trips that I expect to take next year (one to Colorado Springs and one to Tucson, AZ) and both have plenty of Tesla SC locations open to us along the way.

West coast may be different, most of my trips are east of the Mississippi and for reference sake, when I say I'm on the road a lot - the last 30 days I charged at Tesla SCs 21 times, an additional dozen or so times at EA/EVGo.

For long trips, it's not just how many total count is available. It's where they are, how fast you can get in and out, the amenities, and the spacing - the last of which unfortunately is very car dependent. When I'm trying to get A->B quickly, 3 Tesla SCs in succession of Mall / Costco / Buc-ee's will add significantly more overall travel time. I tend to filter my charges to: (1) 8+ station Count, (2) Less than 0.8 miles or less off the highway I'm currently on, (3) As little amenities as possible, preferably a gas station. I find that's the quickest way to travel. If the family is with me, all of those change to make sure they can stay fed and entertained...

 

[RickLightning]

Coverage is vastly different in different areas. And, outside California and maybe a few other states, I have never seen more than 10 chargers of any brand at one spot.

 

[K6CCC]

Coverage is vastly different in different areas. And, outside California and maybe a few other states, I have never seen more than 10 chargers of any brand at one spot.

Not doubting you, but I am pretty sure I have never seen a Tesla SC smaller than a dozen. My last trip had two Tesla charges - one was 40 stall (Baker, CA), and the other was 120 stall (Barstow, CA). Not that I fast charge near home, but within 5 miles of home there are 5 Tesla SC locations (all open to us). One is 24 stall and the other four are 16 stall.

 

[Rip]

It is sad that one of the best vehicles ever produced is in this state of flux. I blame it 100% on the dealer network and their furious pushback of not only the Lightning, but EV in general.
Unfortunately dealers make 50% or more of their gross margin on service, and they know that EV's will be the near end of that cash train. If sales and service were not so tightly integrated, then you would have seen a much different uptake of buyers for EV's.
Do keep in mind that the source of the WSJ article is a dealer. Sometimes you can talk your way into making things true, which is what they are trying to do.

I think you have to put some of the blame on DC. The new administration has proven willing to do anything to squash anything that goes against big oil and coal, and has worked furiously to label climate change as a "woke hoax." I'm sure that besides cancelling any incentives, they have done what they could to directly pressure automakers.

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