Ford Motor Co. has cut the prices on its line of electric vehicle (EV) pickup trucks in an effort to challenge EV market leader Tesla.
CNBC reported on Monday that the Detroit-based automaker said the reasoning behind the price reduction is to boost production of the vehicles, noting they saw improvements when the company achieved lower costs for battery material.
Prices for the least expensive version of its versions of the F-150 Lighting will now start at $50,000, a $10,000 cut.
Ford said prices for all versions of its F-150 truck series will drop by at least $6,000 from levels set in March 2024, according to CNBC. Now, the most expensive version of the Lighting F-150 model will start at $92,000, down from about $98,000.
“Shortly after launching the F-150 Lightning, rapidly rising material costs, supply constraints and other factors drove up the cost of the EV truck for Ford and our customers,” said Marin Gjaja, Ford’s Model e chief customer officer, in a Monday statement, Reuters reported.
Gjaja reportedly added that the company will continue “to work in the background to improve accessibility and affordability.”
Ford’s move comes as the automaker is in a price war with Tesla, which is the industry leader in EV sales.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk responded to Ford’s latest initiative, saying in a tweet that, “The Ford Lightning is a good vehicle, just somewhat expensive, especially given the high interest rates these days for any kind of loan.”
Increasing the production of the Lightning and other Ford EVs has been a priority for CEO Jim Farley, though the automaker has sold fewer than 5,000 Lightning models in the second quarter of this year after a fire in one of the EV trucks led to production to be shut down for five weeks, CNBC reported.