Ford slashes rates of F-150 Lightning trucks as EV price war heats up

July 17 (Reuters) – Ford Motor (F.N) deepened a price war in the electric-vehicle industry on Monday by slashing the rates of its F-150 Lightning trucks, including a 17% cut for the base model, as it aims to boost its share of an EV market dominated by Tesla (TSLA.O).

Shares of Ford were down about 5% in morning trade. Rival General Motors (GM.N) also fell about 3%, while EV maker Rivian (RIVN.O) was down about 3.8%.

The Detroit automaker, which had raised Lightning prices earlier this year, said it was able to cut prices on improvements in scale and battery raw material costs.

The move comes amid a price war started by Tesla a few months ago, which has seen the EVs of legacy automakers piling up at dealers as sales slow. In the quarter through June, Ford’s EV sales fell 2.8%.

“Shortly after launching the F-150 Lightning, rapidly rising material costs, supply constraints and other factors drove up the cost of the EV truck for Ford and our customers,” said Marin Gjaja, chief customer officer, Ford Model e.

“We’ve continued to work in the background to improve accessibility and affordability.”

Ford also said it has temporarily closed its Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Michigan to complete final plant upgrades as it aims to triple the facility’s annual run rate to 150,000 Lightning trucks, beginning this fall.

Battery raw material prices have been one of the factors that pushed up EV prices. But prices of cobalt and lithium, crucial for EV batteries, have declined. Analysts expect commodity costs to drop further in the second half of the year.

Ford has also strengthened its sourcing options and unveiled new supply deals for battery-grade lithium earlier this year.

The company said it had lowered the prices for all variants of the Lightning model. The base Pro variant now carries a suggested retail price of $49,995, compared to its prior price of $59,974, while the higher-end Platinum model will cost about 6.2% less, at $91,995.

Reporting by Nathan Gomes and Shivansh Tiwary in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai

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