The Ford F-150 Lightning EV Is Officially Dead

The current-generation Ford F-150 Lightning is dead, Ford officials confirmed on Monday.

Couched in a bunch of EV news and an announcement that the next-gen Lightning would be an extended-range electric vehicle (EREV), Ford slipped in the announcement that the existing F-150 Lightning will not survive 2025.

“We actually ended production of the 2025 model-year Lightning just this month,” said Andrew Frick, the president of Ford Blue and Ford Model e, on a conference call with reporters Monday afternoon. “This was in response to a lot of the market realities and customer preferences.”

Production of the F-150 had already been paused, too, after a supplier fire limited F-150 production. Ford chose to prioritize restarting production of its gas-burning trucks, as they are both more profitable and popular. This led to rumors back in November that the F-150 Lightning was going away, but the company maintained that production at the plant would resume.

“We have good inventories of the F-150 Lightning and will bring Rouge Electric Vehicle Center (REVC) back up at the right time, but don’t have an exact date at this time,” a spokesperson said via email.

Well, it surely will eventually. But it won’t be building this truck. Instead, Ford employees are being sent to the Dearborn Truck Plant to support a third shift for F-150 gas and hybrid truck production as the automaker attempts to recover from the aluminum-plant fires. 

It’s a whimpering death for a product that was supposed to transform the industry.

It’s hard to remember the pre-2023 days of EV optimism, but I distinctly remember hearing about the F-150 Lightning back in 2021. I was working at Road & Track at the time, and EV options were growing, but thin on the ground. The announcement landed like a bomb: America’s best-selling vehicle was going electric. That was it, I thought. The EV revolution was actually happening, and sooner than I thought, I mused at the time.

But Ford and I were both wrong. Despite sky-high expectations, the F-150 Lightning was not a transformative vehicle for the EV world, the American auto market, or the truck segment. The company at one point planned for up to 150,000 annual sales. The real number never surpassed 40,000 units per year. 

The Lightning will be replaced by an Extended Range Electric Vehicle (EREV) model, with a gasoline-powered range extender. This is the concept drawing Ford release on Monday.

Photo by: Ford

Ford can fairly say that the EV market grew more slowly than anyone expected, and that the Lightning still managed to be the best-selling electric truck this year. But this death is at least partially self-inflicted.

Ford claimed that the Lightning would start at $40,000, but delivered a far more expensive product that usually cost between $60,000 and $90,000. And its commonality with the F-150 itself became an issue. The Lightning sits on the same lot as gas trucks that look identical, offer similar equipment, are far more familiar to the target audience and cost $10,000-$15,000 less.

That’s made it a tough sell the whole time, which is why Ford has offered generous incentives on the Lightning for years. But that already made Ford’s EV division deeply unprofitable. Couple that with large EV economics that are, according to Ford’s CEO, “unresolvable,” and the case was made. The company will pivot to EREVs for its larger electric vehicles, at least for now.

The news also comes not even two full months after Ford announced a Home Power Management program for the Lightning, which allows owners in select markets to store up cheaper electricity during the day and even put it back into the grid.

On today’s call, Ford reaffirmed support for the Universal Electric Vehicle platform, its upcoming “skunkworks” EV project that will underpin a $30,000 compact truck starting in 2027. But for bigger trucks and vans, the automaker is pivoting to gas power—at least in part. 

Contact the author: Mack.Hogan@insideevs.com.