Ford Gets a Correction to Our F-150 Lightning Story

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) asked for a correction to our “Ford to End Production of Failed F-150 Lightning.”

Here is their correction:

F-150 Lightning is the best-selling electric pickup truck in the U.S. – despite new competition from CyberTruck, Chevy, GMC, Hummer and Rivian – and delivered record sales in Q3. Right now, we’re focused on producing F-150 ICE and Hybrid as we recover from the fire at Novelis. We have good inventories of the F-150 Lightning and will bring Rouge Electric Vehicle Center (REVC) back up at the right time, but don’t have an exact date at this time.

Here is our response:

Ford’s comment about the Lightning is a claim that it is good to be a 5 feet, 3 inches tall person in a room of people who are 5 feet tall.

For a start, the production information comes from The New York Times: “The company also said it has stopped making an electric version of its popular F-150 pickup.” That is in the headline about Ford’s earnings. In the body of their story: “Because of the fire and slowing sales of electric vehicles, the company has stopped making the F-150 Lightning electric pickup.”

Ford always stuns us when it talks about being first in the segment. The company took the brand of the top-selling vehicle in the past five decades and launched an electric version. Then it congratulated itself for selling only 85 of these a day through the first three quarters of this year. Thus, Ford took one of the greatest brands in auto history and turned it into a multibillion-dollar debacle.

Executive Chair Bill Ford told the Detroit News that the Lightning was the most important product of his career. He added, “Anytime you have a radical change to your most  successful product, you really are betting the company.” I have not heard him say Ford lost that bet.

The company increased the price of the Lightning three times in 2022. Some of that was apparently because it did not anticipate “significant material cost increases.” One of the largest car companies in the world should have foreseen such a significant change.

Ford said it planned to build 150,000 Lightnings in 2022. And it said it would ramp to an electric vehicle (EV) production rate of 600,000 in 2023. Ford has only sold 69,000 EVs through the first three quarters of 2025. It will be lucky to sell 90,000 for the entire year.

Astonishingly, Ford is proud of being in first place in the electric pickup segment with nine-month sales of 23,034 Lightnings through the third quarter, up a staggering 1%. That’s a record to be proud of.

Ford Stock Price Prediction and Forecast 2025–2030