Back in June, Tesla announced it was raising its prices. Select Model 3, S, Y, and X vehicles were affected by the bump. The recent price increase followed another major round of increases in March and was blamed on inflation and transportation costs. Now, Ford has announced an increase in prices for its new F-150 Lightning truck. The Lightning is Ford’s electric truck and its base model will have a new starting price of $46,974, around $7,000 higher than before the announcement. Nora Eckert reports for The Wall Street Journal:
The Dearborn, Mich., auto maker said Tuesday that it plans to reopen the order bank for its new F-150 Lightning truck this week and will raise prices between 7% and 18% for many configurations.
Ford said it is adjusting prices because of higher materials costs and other factors. The new prices will apply only to new orders placed when the order bank reopens Thursday, the company said.
The cheapest version of the truck will now start at $46,974. That is about $7,000 higher than the sub-$40,000 starting price tag that was originally promoted by Ford executives.
Auto makers more broadly have been raising prices on electric vehicles, looking to offset higher costs for raw materials such as lithium and cobalt that are key inputs for batteries. For instance, General Motors Co. in June tacked on $6,250 to the price of GMC Hummer electric pickup-truck models, which now range from around $85,000 to $105,000, citing an increase in commodity and logistics costs.
Industry executives are betting that consumer demand will remain strong for these new EV models, even as they increase the sticker price, and point to long waiting lists for some models, including the F-150 Lightning. Ford in December capped reservations for the F-150 Lightning at 200,000 vehicles.
The auto industry is still confronting supply-chain snags that have limited supplies of all vehicles, inflating prices overall for car shoppers. With parts shortages continuing to dent production, car companies don’t foresee consumers getting any price relief this year or even next.
The new price range for 2023 model-year F-150 Lightning will now span $46,974 to $96,874 for the most pricey configurations, the company said.
Ford Chief Financial Officer John Lawler said earlier this year that rising commodity costs have wiped out profits on another EV model that is sold by Ford: the Mustang Mach-E. Ford also increased prices on the Mach-E SUV in the first quarter.
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