Used Ford F-150 Lightnings Sell Fast at 50% Off — SkimNews
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- Ford ended F-150 Lightning production last December, with CEO Jim Farley saying high-end EVs in the $50,000–$80,000 range "just weren't selling"
- Used F-150 Lightnings are moving in about 20 days—less than half the 44-day used-vehicle average—priced at roughly $50,000 on average (up 4% since January) after 50–60% sticker discounts
- Plug CEO Jimmy Douglas told Bloomberg the discounted Lightning is a "sweet spot," noting that roughly one-third of used units are now sold directly by rival dealerships rather than returned to the automaker
- Ford lost more than $100,000 on every EV it built in Q1 2024, even as the Lightning's first-year average transaction price hit $79,000—about $19,000 above the gas F-150
- Ford's Fathom electric pickup will start at $28,350 ($29,945 with delivery) when it launches in 2027 on the new Universal Electric Vehicle platform, with a 100,000-unit first-year sales target
- Farley acknowledged at the 2026 Automotive News Congress that "it's going to be a heck of an effort to launch this at scale, at cost, on time," and the Fathom's battery, range, and towing specs remain undisclosed
Why it matters: The used-market surge validates that Ford's Lightning pricing—not consumer appetite for electric pickups—was the core failure. The Fathom's sub-$30,000 starting price is a direct response to that lesson, but Farley's own admission about the difficulty of scaling "at scale, at cost, on time" signals Ford has yet to prove it can build EVs profitably on its new UEV platform.
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