When Ford unveiled the F-150 Lightning, there were many impressive things about it but perhaps the most impressive was its sub-$40k starting price.
Speaking to Autoblog at the Chicago Auto Show, Darren Palmer, general manager for Ford’s battery electric vehicles, said that the secret to getting the price down on the electric truck was scale. Because the pickup, apart from a handful of specialty parts, is essentially identical to a regular F-150 on top, Ford can leverage the best-selling vehicle in America‘s scale to negotiate the best prices possible.
“So the top half of this truck has a scale of 4 million units,” Palmer told the outlet. “That seat, we buy 4 million of. We get the best price in the industry. The front trunk, apart from the unique components, the whole rest of the truck, we get 4 million units.”
Read Also: 2022 Ford Maverick And F-150 Lightning Debut In Chicago
And even though the frame and suspension are all-new, Ford turned to the same supplier that it gets the F-150’s frame and suspension from. Seeing as how the automaker already goes to that supplier for millions of frames, they can negotiate a sweetheart deal.
Ford was even able to lower the price of the batteries thanks to a design that allows the automaker to share it with many other vehicles.
“The next generation of SUVs coming, the larger trucks, and the SK Innovation batteries,” Palmer said. “So we get great scale, and we share the components and technology in them, which means we get great value in the electric system.”
All of which allows Ford to sell the truck for a base MSRP of $39,974, which is just $3,000 off a bone stock 2021 F-150 XL Supercrew with the 3.3-liter V6. That’s not just impressive, it’s central to Ford’s plan for the electric truck.
“I wanted it at a price that is within gas price or nearby,” said Palmer. “Because then the barrier is gone. The psychological barrier in the mind. Once they’ve flipped, they’ve gone for it, they never want to go back. But getting them to flip, because their current truck works pretty well, it’s hard.”
That need to save costs, though, does come with some compromises. For instance, the F-150 Lightning‘s lack of options comes as a direct result of the need to keep the price low. Rather than offer the endless options of the gas-powered truck, Ford opted to keep the lineup simple.
Whether the strategy will work will be interesting to see, but not requiring buyers to do math before their vehicle comes out costing close to a gas-powered vehicle, not to mention the bonus of a federal tax incentive on top of that, certainly sounds like a good idea.
