Ford announces its ending production of its full-size electric pickup

At Walnut Creek Ford, there is a line of Ford F-150 Lightnings in the lot. There wouldn't have been in 2020 when they were selling like hotcakes. But that was then, and this is now.

On Monday, Ford announced that it was discontinuing production of the full-size EV pickup. 

"It didn't make sense to keep plowing billions into products that we knew wouldn't make money," said Ford President and CEO Jim Farley.

It was a surprise announcement from the Ford Motor Company that it was ending production of its F-150 Lightning pickup truck. It described the move as a "consumer-driven" decision.  

The company says it lost billions trying to sell electric vehicles, and some feel the move may signal a big shift in the EV market.

Farley said sales had fallen off drastically for the all-electric version of its iconic truck line, which can cost from $50,000 to $80,000.

"We saw this happening," he said.  "We also saw the more expensive EVs really suffer in the market, and the more affordable EVs do better. And then the last couple months really was remarkable. The EV market in the US went from 12 percent in the industry to only 5."

Tom McGloughney hosts a webcast called State of Charge. On it, he said he owns an F-150 Lightning and loves it, but admitted it has trouble towing. And he said he thought it was ridiculous that, when Ford developed the truck, the company predicted that by 2025, 45 percent of all American car sales would be EV.

"I don't know where they came up with that. That's bonkers!" said McGloughney. "To think that by 2025, the whole country would be at nearly 50 percent electric vehicle adoption? If that was your bar, then, yeah, you were going to be disappointed, and sales were not going to be as good as you expected."

Ford said it will now focus on an "extended range" version of the F-150, adding a gas generator to the truck that can recharge it like a plug-in hybrid, doubling its range from 350 to about 700 miles. It doesn't fit the original vision of California's dream to end the sale of gas-powered cars by 2035.

But Professor Scott Moura at UC Berkeley's Institute of Transportation Studies said that was never a practical strategy in the first place.

"So, if the goal is to reduce air pollution, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the purity test of being a pure battery electric vehicle may be more about a purity test than actually achieving that goal reasonably," Moura said.

Politics is also playing a part in Ford's decision. The CEO says the Trump administration's ending of the federal EV tax credit and the relaxing of fuel and emission standards are causing many automakers to rethink their commitment to electric vehicles.  

Ford said it lost $13 billion on EVs since 2023 and expects to lose another $19.5 billion in closing the line down. The company invested heavily in battery production, and CEO Farley said they will soon get into the energy storage business, just as Tesla did.

Moura said he hopes the legacy of the Ford Lightning will be that people will view the electric car market in a more realistic way.

"Yeah," he said, "I view the F-150 Lightning as, I think a lot of things were learned."