Ford's Woes Keep Piling Up Amid EV Push: F-150 Lightning Shocking Price Jump Causes Customers To Cancel Orders

As layoffs and sales shortfalls loom in the future of American automaker Ford Motor Company, it appears that the root of the well-reported setbacks its electric vehicle (EV) division has faced is fairly simple to grasp. People simply don't want to buy Ford's EV after the price tag has jumped precipitously.

Reports released Thursday reflect this sudden deluge of canceled F-150 Lightning purchase orders could be indicative of the projected $3 billion projected loss that looms ahead for the firm in March and the 1,000 expected layoffs, as reported previously by DC Enquirer.

According to The Verge, a Ford dealership sales manager said that buyer confidence in the EV truck has suffered a collapse in recent weeks as the prices have jumped by nearly $20,000 MSRP since the original announced sticker price of $39,975. Today an F-150 Lightning will set a new buyer back $59,974 before tax, title, licensing, and registration.

Tim Bartz, of Long McArthur Ford in Salina, Kansas, told the outlet, "What we’re seeing is that we are having a lot of customers just canceling theirs." 

“Ford advertised a $40,000 electric vehicle, and that attracted a lot of people. Now we’ve seen price increases, and those people are like, ‘I’m out.’”

And the price isn't even the entire problem as delays and supply-line failures have further eroded consumer confidence... and patience, according to Bartz.

“Customers tell me that they were looking to get in at that $40,000 truck, but now that’s $60,000, and you can’t even get that truck since they’re sold out of them. Now you’ll have to pay $65,000 minimum; that’s just a whole different level,” Bartz explained. 

In March, Yahoo Finance Senior Autos Reporter Pras Subramanian remarked about the several increases the beleaguered F-150 variant has undergone since its initial roll-out in an interview with 'Yahoo Finance Live's' Seana Smith and Dave Briggs.

"Yeah, I guess the Street isn't concerned about sticker shock here for people who want to get this F-150 Lightning. But yeah, you mentioned four price hikes here. So today they opened up the order books for the new-- for the next batch of reservation holders, and then with that new pricing so that Ford Pro base model went up $4,000 to $61,900 and ish dollars there," Subramanian began.

"It originally started at $42,000, right? So that's $20,000 in price hikes over the last year. It went from $42 to $48.9 to $53.7 to now $61.9. So really sort of hiking that base level up a lot. The cheaper-- or, I'm sorry, the more expensive Lariat and premium-- or Platinum trims went up a couple of grand here and there. But it's really this base model that went up significantly because you got to say, this is--

The cheap model supposed to be a loss leader. And they just can't keep up with the losses, it seems."

As succinctly as Subramanian put it, it must be noted that in a stagnating economy with inflation still strangling many families, the grasp of an EV still far exceeds most American buyers' reach, as Greg Gutfeld tried to explain to Geraldo Rivera in April, as previously reported by the DC Enquirer.

For many in 2023, a Ford EV might as well be a Bentley.