2022 Lightning Pro sold out [update: confirmed]

[adoublee]

Yeah, this forum is an echo chamber and I think reflects far higher pro demand than the general public. Will there be cancelled or postponed orders once the pro is sold out - yes. Will it matter to Ford. No.

And they might see a new wave of interest when demo units get out to dealers. I gotta think some truck drivers are going to be blown away by the driving experience.

Sponsored

 

[jazzmanmonty]

Hol-E shit! He missed out cuz he couldn't decide on what color he wanted?? ahahaha. He deserves to miss out. I was between two colors..i flipped a coin. Fate decided my color.

After examining his screenshot vs. ford's current build it page, i'm 99% convinced its photoshopped. No caps on "sold out," letters are smaller, skinnier, and less bold, seems to be centered a touch higher than "limited availabilty" on site. Finally the biggest giveaway is that there is no "explore this model" option on the real invite order page as you can see in this snippet below. But you be the judge.

 

[CoyoteJim]

Hol-E shit! He missed out cuz he couldn't decide on what color he wanted?? ahahaha. He deserves to miss out. I was between two colors..i flipped a coin. Fate decided my color.

After examining his screenshot vs. ford's current build it page, i'm 99% convinced its photoshopped. No caps on "sold out," letters are smaller, skinnier, and less bold, seems to be centered a touch higher than "limited availabilty" on site. Finally the biggest giveaway is that there is no "explore this model" option on the real invite order page as you can see in this snippet below. But you be the judge.

Jazzmanmonty, I was down in the dumps but you have given me hope! What you pointed out is true, plus I noticed the white F150L is used on the “build and price” page whereas your order invite page pic has all grey colored vehicles. So I’m hoping there’s still a chance for a Pro.

Now as to why someone would want to photoshop this and put it on Facebook to cause angst to so many people is a mystery to me.

 

[Sam James]

The "Limited Availability" (or any other message, really) banners are now gone. Curious what today will bring.

 

[Sklith]

The limited availability messages seem to only show when not logged in.

 

[gorwell]

Looks like Ford saved me one:

Edit: Ford did not save me one

 

[Blainestang]

Yeah, this forum is an echo chamber and I think reflects far higher pro demand than the general public. Will there be cancelled or postponed orders once the pro is sold out - yes. Will it matter to Ford. No.

I think it's safe to say that Pro demand is way higher than their allocation estimate in the playbook indicates, though. ~4-5% is complete nonsense.

But you're right that it won't matter to Ford right away. They'll have to open up XLT ER without the $9500 package and the Pro *eventually*, but they can just force everyone into the Lariat/Platinum and pretend they're "favs" for a while and demand will still exceed supply.

 

[ryan]

Am I the only one not surprised the Pro sold out? Ford didn't underestimate demand-- they played up the Pro in their advertising as the affordable ev truck. Ford's running the same play that Tesla did with the model S-- luxury trims have bigger margins so they get built first.

The limitations are with batteries/chips/labor/whatever and apply evenly to all the trims, so surprise they're building the most profitable trim mix they can knowing that even the plat would be in demand this first year. That's not saying Ford is evil corporation (the Elizabeth Warren take).

Innovation is a risk and costs money, Ford takes on some of that, and the consumers have to reward Ford for that. And, surprise, we don't reward Ford by buying the lowest margin vehicles. At the same time, having a small Pro-allotment still lets Ford say they made an affordable EV.

 

[Nick Gerteis]

I’m by no means knowledgeable regarding the auto supply chain. But the fact that Ford knows exactly what to build for many months in advance, by 3/31 at the latest, makes me wonder why they are allocating between trims. Should be plenty of lead time to, for example, order more lariat seats if needed by October. Even easier for the Pro since they have all the fleet order Pros as a backup if they run out of retail Pros. So yes, if they “run out” early it was definitely both intentional and a money grab.

 

[Blainestang]

I’m by no means knowledgeable regarding the auto supply chain. But the fact that Ford knows exactly what to build for many months in advance, by 3/31 at the latest, makes me wonder why they are allocating between trims. Should be plenty of lead time to, for example, order more lariat seats if needed by October. Even easier for the Pro since they have all the fleet order Pros as a backup if they run out of retail Pros. So yes, if they “run out” early it was definitely both intentional and a money grab.

Yeah, it's almost certainly not an inherent supply chain issue keeping them from selling more Pros... ASSUMING that they actually end up "selling out" soon. (It seems likely that they will be severely limited, but maybe they'll adjust up).

If there's a "supply chain issue" for the Pro, it's because they already ordered the supplies for very few Pros because they "underestimated demand" again, totally on accident and not completely on purpose, and oopsie daisies, all we have parts for is Lariats and Platinums.

If you're really only going to sell a substantial number of Lariats and Platinums, that's fine. It's a business decision. Just own it, though. Stop pretending like, oh, we just had no idea people would want a 4x4, 426hp, Supercrew, Electric F-150 for $32,500 after tax credit, making it far, far cheaper than a comparable gas version.

The "oh, we had no idea demand would be so high" act is really old. If everyone really was off by many multiples of actual demand (already "doubled" twice, and it's still not going to be enough), then tons of people should be fired for gross incompetence.

 

[Blainestang]

Am I the only one not surprised the Pro sold out? Ford didn't underestimate demand-- they played up the Pro in their advertising as the affordable ev truck. Ford's running the same play that Tesla did with the model S-- luxury trims have bigger margins so they get built first.

The limitations are with batteries/chips/labor/whatever and apply evenly to all the trims, so surprise they're building the most profitable trim mix they can knowing that even the plat would be in demand this first year. That's not saying Ford is evil corporation (the Elizabeth Warren take).

Innovation is a risk and costs money, Ford takes on some of that, and the consumers have to reward Ford for that. And, surprise, we don't reward Ford by buying the lowest margin vehicles. At the same time, having a small Pro-allotment still lets Ford say they made an affordable EV.

I think everyone sees what they're doing, and it TOTALLY makes sense from a business standpoint, and from the standpoint of a shareholder, it makes sense, too.

It's that they've done an awful job of managing expectations : Allowing people to believe that all trims would be readily available at launch (and that the XLT ER would be $60k-$63k), tweeting about how other manufacturers are "playing games" and limiting the cheap versions, when they're doing exactly the same thing.

Limiting the Pro isn't surprising at all from a business standpoint. That's why I've been cautiously optimistic about the Pro, but they've led everyone to believe that it would have similar availability and that they wouldn't play "games" like this, so it will still be somewhat of a surprise if they really limit Pros to just a few hundred trucks after making it seem that they wouldn't and/or not doing anything to adjust expectations about the Pro.

 

[ryan]

Fair point but I kind of wonder how much of our expectations were set by reading into things and unofficial information.

 

[Blainestang]

Fair point but I kind of wonder how much of our expectations were set by reading into things and unofficial information.

For sure, some expectations were set by reading into things (like the survey from Ford that turned out to be wrong about the price of the ER battery upgrade) and such, but Ford absolutely knew what the "word on the street" was and could have helped to manage expectations, but didn't.

They knew that people believed the XLT ER would be $60k-$63k for months and months, based on information direct from Ford ($53k XLT SR + $7k/$10k ER), and so they could have tempered expectations so it wasn't as much of a surprise that the XLT ER starts at $73k, for instance, but they didn't... so now there are some understandably disappointed reservation holders.

 

[Sam James]

For sure, some expectations were set by reading into things (like the survey from Ford that turned out to be wrong about the price of the ER battery upgrade) and such, but Ford absolutely knew what the "word on the street" was and could have helped to manage expectations, but didn't.

They knew that people believed the XLT ER would be $60k-$63k for months and months, based on information direct from Ford ($53k XLT SR + $7k/$10k ER), and so they could have tempered expectations so it wasn't as much of a surprise that the XLT ER starts at $73k, for instance, but they didn't... so now there are some understandably disappointed reservation holders.

I mean, they're even on this site. Too bad they're too busy posting their coffee in front of their vehicles on Twitter. @Ford Motor Company

 

[Blainestang]

I mean, they're even on this site. Too bad they're too busy posting their coffee in front of their vehicles on Twitter. @Ford Motor Company

Shots fired!

Sponsored