Ford says it's cutting F-150 Lightning production by Half in 2024

[Eastbaylightning]

Sawyer Merritt posted this news in Twitter / X.com today.
Are they trying to minimize their loss in manufacturing EV? Hope they want to shift their focus in pushing T3.

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[Randall Stephens]

XLT with money on the hood are the vast majority of f150 sales, these 60k+ trucks are just not very affordable for most people. It takes time. Ford is learning a lot about building EV trucks on this thing. T3 should hopefully lower the entry price.

 

[carys98]

What they are actually cutting is the forecast. November was the biggest sales month for Lightning and they sold about 4,400. To sell 83,000 next year they will have to outsell November every month next year. They still expect sales and production to exceed 2023.

 

[TaxmanHog]

They hit peak production rate of 2997 trucks the week of 9/25.

Their closing run rate was 75296 for an annual projected amount based on last MY build week 12/11 for 1448 units.

1600 a week seems plausible, if the market surges after disappointed CT order makers turn away from T, then F will be able to ramp up.

 

[Grease Lightning]

Sawyer Merritt posted this news in Twitter / X.com today.
Are they trying to minimize their loss in manufacturing EV? Hope they want to shift their focus in pushing T3.

It’s always funny how people try spin any news as extremely bad news.

As Ford said in their official announcement, they are meeting customer demand. Rather then doing plant shutdowns later in the year, it is solid business practice to lower the initial expectations as general new car demand is not there right now. Then if Ford outsells their proposed weekly projection, you ramp up.

So no it is not a way to curb losses, it is a way for a business to stay liquid and nimble in an ever changing economy.

Unless the economy changes, I don’t think we will see the T3 in the near term. Why invest billions in retooling for a whole new truck if no one is buying Rather they will likely milk as much money out of the current Lightning to get as much R&D money back.

 

[Pioneer74]

Why invest billions in retooling for a whole new truck if no one is buying

Because it's not a retool. It's a whole new complex, a whole new product. Not just a new assembly plant, but a stamping plant and battery assembly plant.

It's being built at this very moment. Ford isn't stopping construction. The new truck will be on sale when it's completed. That's the only way to get the money they invested in it back.

 

[WhipSticks]

Who is this "Sawyer Merritt" joker and where did he go to school? Or did he even go to school?

 

[Grease Lightning]

Because it's not a retool. It's a whole new complex, a whole new product. Not just a new assembly plant, but a stamping plant and battery assembly plant.

It's being built at this very moment. Ford isn't stopping construction. The new truck will be on sale when it's completed. That's the only way to get the money they invested in it back.

Unless it is currently a completed building, which Blue Oval City currently is not, they are not committed to an assembly line, new tools, or so on.

We regularly get project stopping mid development when the economy sucks.
Farley reports to the shareholders. If the market is not there at the moment, the shareholders would rather millions of dollars in write offs for a building being vacant, then potential losses from starting production on a vehicle currently in the R&D phase.

So sadly, yes it could still be delayed if there is not a market yet. Look at the CyberTurd. That took an extra couple of years too

 

[Pioneer74]

Unless it is currently a completed building, which Blue Oval City currently is not, they are not committed to an assembly line, new tools, or so on.

We regularly get project stopping mid development when the economy sucks.
Farley reports to the shareholders. If the market is not there at the moment, the shareholders would rather millions of dollars in write offs for a building being vacant, then potential losses from starting production on a vehicle currently in the R&D phase.

So sadly, yes it could still be delayed if there is not a market yet. Look at the CyberTurd. That took an extra couple of years too

We are already getting a timeline of when hourly workers in Dearborn will be able to transfer to the new plant. A lot of management has already moved down there. Believe what you want.

 

[Grease Lightning]

We are already getting a timeline of when hourly workers in Dearborn will be able to transfer to the new plant. A lot of management has already moved down there. Believe what you want.

Thanks, I always do!

And you hopefully are right, but I know in corporate America until the ribbon cutting with the first vehicle coming off the line, absolutely nothing is concrete. Especially in a prolonged economic downturn and coming into a presidential election where there is a chance a different political team can come into power and erode the EV movement as it doesn’t align with their beliefs.

 

[luebri]

presidential election where there is a chance a different political team can come into power and erode the EV movement as it doesn’t align with their beliefs.

As long as the EV and save the planet evangelists continue to make EVs political they will never get over 50% traction so I would stop framing this as a political item. It’s not helping the “EV cause” if that is what you want.

 

[F150ROD]

Who is this "Sawyer Merritt" joker and where did he go to school? Or did he even go to school?

He’s Teslas mouthpiece, basically the PR dept for Tesla…

“What a turn of events”. He really thinks the Cybertruck made Ford cut production smh….

 

[Grease Lightning]

As long as the EV and save the planet evangelists continue to make EVs political they will never get over 50% traction so I would stop framing this as a political item. It’s not helping the “EV cause” if that is what you want.

Obviously not what I ever want, but seeing how billions of federal dollars are being allocated to help fix the gaps needed for mass adoption, sadly it will be political to a party that tends to be less “for the better good”

 

[Eastbaylightning]

He’s Teslas mouthpiece, basically the PR dept for Tesla…

“What a turn of events”. He really thinks the Cybertruck made Ford cut production smh….

Another post from him today
Make sure you have F150 accompanying your CT at all times, just in case

 

[Jim Lewis]

Maybe as production of the T3 nears, sales of the Lightning are going to go down, too, just from the Osborne effect ( Osborne effect - Wikipedia ).

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