- Ford halted or slowed deliveries of three major truck lines early this year, but those problems are now in the rearview mirror.
- The company said each day it is working to send thousands of Rangers and F-150s it built in Q1 to dealers.
- At the same time, it has also cut the price of the F-150 Lightning by as much as $5,500.
The second quarter of 2024 will be crucial for Ford as the Detroit automaker aims to recover from a weak Q1 in pickup sales, particularly for the F-150 and the Ranger. The Blue Oval built 144,000 units of the trucks in the early part of the year, and after delay dealers, is working to get them to dealers, while also slashing prices for the all-electric F-150 Lightning by as much as 7.5 percent.
Although Ford led in pickup truck sales in America during the first three months of the year helped by the success of the Maverick, sales of the combustion F-Series dropped over 10 percent, contributing to a 0.6 percent overall decline in pickup truck deliveries. This was mainly due to delays in the start of deliveries for the new 2024 Ranger and the refreshed 2024 F-150.
Read: Ford Trucks Suffer In Q1 2024, As F-Series Sales Fall 10 Percent
In the case of the larger pickup truck, Ford engineers discovered that certain electronic components did not shut off or were drawing more power than expected while the vehicles were being held in stock, reports Reuters. It decided to perform software updates to each truck before sending them out to dealers.
The decision mirrors the “go-slow” approach that Ford has adopted with Super Duty pickups built at its Kentucky plant, sales of which grew by 23 percent in the first quarter of the year. The method was adopted after Ford topped America’s recall charts for the third years in a row, and spent nearly $4.8 billion on recalls in 2023.
Similarly, the commencement of deliveries for the 2024 Ford Ranger faced multiple delays, with the new mid-size pickup only starting to arrive in dealerships in March. Consequently, Ford sold zero Rangers in February and just 1,918 in the entire first quarter of the year, marking an 83 percent decline from the previous year.
Finally, despite the fact that F-150 Lightning sales were up more than 80 percent in the first quarter of the year, as compared to Q1 2023, Ford halted deliveries of the electric truck in February due to an undisclosed problem.
Price Cuts For F-150 Lightning
In addition to restarting deliveries of the electric pickup, Ford has also cut prices by as much as $5,500, reports CarsDirect. That reduction is for the 2024 F-150 Lightning Flash with the extended range battery, which now starts at $67,995.
More: Ford Sold Twice As Many Mavericks As Jeep, Honda And Hyundai Pickups Combined In Q1
Elsewhere, the Lightning XLT model’s price has been cut by $2,000 and now starts at $62,995, while the Lariat extended range model’s price falls by $2,500 to $76,995. The most affordable trim level in the lineup, the Pro variant, still starts at $54,995, and has not had its price reduced.
The F-150s, F-150 Lightnings, and Rangers that it assembled in the first quarter of 2024 are part of what Ford is now calling an “onslaught,” and getting the trucks into customers’ hands will be crucial to mitigating the financial impact that holding them back is expected to have had on the company’s first quarter results.
Update: Ford clarifies that while they’ve assembled 144,000 F-150 and Ranger trucks in the first quarter, these aren’t being released all at once. Shipments are ongoing as they ensure each unit is ready for sale.
