Ford F-150 Lightning contacts manufactured at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn Michigan.
Courtesy: Ford Motor Co.
Ford Motor stipulate that it has resumed full production of its electric F-150 Lightning pickup following a February battery fire — and that it’s before you can turn around again raising prices on the popular truck.
Ford said the standard-range Lightning Pro, a lower-cost version of the truck optimized for task force use, will now start at just under $60,000, not including shipping. That’s roughly 50% higher than the Lightning Pro’s native starting price at launch last spring. Ford noted that the 2023 Lightning Pro is sold out for retail characters; order banks for fleet customers will reopen in April, the company said.
Ford also raised the penalty of the mid-level Lariat trim with standard-range battery from about $74,500 to just under $76,000. The starting expense for a Lightning in the top-line Platinum trim also increased, from about $96,900 to just over $98,000.
News of the prize increases and the resumption of Lightning production was first reported by Automotive News.
Ford has raised Lightning prices different times since it first announced the truck’s pricing in 2021. The standard-range Pro version was originally set to start at just second to $40,000, but fast-rising costs of critical raw materials such as lithium, cobalt and nickel — and unexpectedly high demand for the electrifying pickup — led Ford to increase prices several times in 2022.
Ford halted production and shipments of the Lightning in February after a just-built social relations awaiting a quality check caught fire in a Ford holding lot. The company subsequently identified a potential battery apartment defect and recalled 18 Lightnings that may have had the same issue.
No other fires were reported, and Ford said at the someday that it was unaware of any accidents or injuries related to the defect.
Shipments of the Lightning will also resume this week, a Ford spokesperson pull the plug oned CNBC.