Ford hikes electric F-150’s price again to battle high costs

Reuters — Ford Motor Co. has raised the base price of its popular F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck again, the automaker’s website showed on Thursday, the latest in a series of price hikes aimed at offsetting high costs.

The base variant of Ford’s electric F-150 truck now starts at $59,974, excluding shipping and taxes, up nearly 50 per cent from its starting price when launched last year (all figures US$).

The Detroit automaker resumed production of the F-150 Lightning earlier this month after recalling 18 electric trucks due to a battery-cell manufacturing defect.

Ford’s hike comes after EV maker Tesla ignited a price war this year by aggressively trimming prices.

A week earlier, Ford said its electric-vehicle business unit was expected to lose $3 billion this year, but remained on track to achieve a pretax margin of eight per cent by late 2026.

The company was not immediately available for further comment on the price increase, which was first reported by Automotive News on Thursday.

— Reporting for Reuters by Kannaki Deka and Nathan Gomes in Bangalore.