F-150 Lightning

Make
Ford
Segment
Sports Car

The 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning electric pickup debuted this week with two battery levels, a 10,000-pound towing capacity, 563 or 426 horsepower, and a range of either 230 or 300 miles. As you can guess, it was well received. But as of today, Ford said it will limit first year production.

Ford CEO Jim Farley took to CNBC on Thursday, saying Ford was "off to the races" with the new EV pickup, which happens to be based on the best-selling vehicle in America. The company took 20,000 reservations in 12 hours at $100 a pop. Ford didn't say what the limit might be, but it did cap the 2021 Mustang Mach-E at 50,000 units for year one.

Ford shares rose 2.5 percent in Thursday morning trading, as confidence in the brand is high. A research analyst guessed first year output would be around 80,000 vehicles, about ten percent of its total.

"This is America's bestselling vehicle, so if there's one vehicle that's going to give us an indication of whether these EVs are going to take off, it will be this Lightning," Farley said on CNBC.

The base F-150 Lightning will start just under $40,000, with deliveries starting next year. Prices go up from there with the midrange XLT coming in just over $50,000; the top models can hit $90,000. Ryan Brinkman, an analyst with J.P. Morgan, was recently at a presentation with Ford executives where he asked what price they thought it would start at. They guessed between $59,000 and $69,000.

"The actual starting price, Ford told us, was $49,000, which was sufficiently low to elicit audible gasps followed by polite clapping from the audience," Brinkman wrote to Automotive News. "After which we were told, 'Just joking - we played a [trick] on you. It doesn't start at $49,000; it starts at $39,974.'?"

The new Lightning will have a few competitors to deal with. Its first will be the Rivian R1T, which will come with three different battery packs: a 105-, a 135- and a 180-kWh unit. It goes on sale later this year. It's range will also be more impressive than the Ford, if Rivian's claims are true. Base models will run 300 miles on a charge, upgraded models will go 400.

Then there's the Chevy Silverado EV, which will run some of the same powertrains as the heavyweight Hummer. It will be looking at an output between 625 and 1,000 hp and a range of 400 miles. Tesla also has something, but we don't know when or if the Cybertruck is coming out. The EV company claims an initial range of 250 miles between charges.