November 6, 2025 - Ford May End Production of F-150 Lightning

This is the Telemetry Transportation Daily for  November 6, 2025, and I'm Sam Abuelsamid, Vice President of Market Research for Telemetry.  

Three and a half years ago, Ford became the first automaker to launch production and sales of a battery electric full-size pickup truck when it debuted the F-150 Lightning. Now the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Ford may be the first to discontinue an electric truck as it considers ending production of the Lightning. When I got a first look at the Lightning in May 2021, nearly a year before deliveries started, it looked like a very impressive offering. With a starting price of just $40,000, it was actually less expensive than a similarly equipped gasoline work truck while offering all of the operating cost advantages of an electric. Unfortunately, within months of it going on sale in spring 2022, the price of key battery materials like nickel skyrocketed in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the truck's price followed suit and has never come back to the original price. 

Despite the Lightning being better than a gas F-150 in virtually every measurable way, it had one weakness besides the price that buyers seemed unwilling to overlook: range while towing. All vehicles except diesels take an efficiency hit of 50% or more when towing, and EVs are no exception. That meant that while a Lightning could tow 10,000 pounds, a tall camper and its inherent aerodynamic drag could reduce that range to as little as 100 miles. 

At the same time, Ford seems to have invested little in actually improving the efficiency and bill of materials cost of the Lightning in the last three years. After initial enthusiasm, Ford moved far too quickly to expand production capacity, which subsequently went vastly underutilized. This has led to huge continuing losses for the program. With Ford's Model E division continuing to lose billions of dollars per year, it's unsurprising that the company seems to want to leave its first-generation EVs behind as soon as possible. This is all unfortunate because the Lightning is a genuinely excellent product that would meet the needs of most pickup truck buyers if they gave it a chance. They may now have to wait years for a successor or choose from the competition: GM, Tesla, or Rivian. 

Thanks for listening.