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Ford F-150 Lightning outsold the Cybertruck and was then canceled for poor sales

electrek.co

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Re: Ford F-150 Lightning outsold the Cybertruck and was then canceled for poor sales

#151

Post by nebula8804 »

ortusdux wrote: post #36

I think the dealership monopoly is partly to blame. Dealers get more reoccurring revenue from ICE vehicles, so they are incentivized to not stock EVs and to steer customers away from them. Ford seemed to understand this and attempted a direct sale program for EVs, but they canceled it due to dealer pushback. https://fordauthority.com/2025/02/ford-ev-inventory-hub-syst...

They seem to be flooded on dealership lots and are not selling whatsoever. OEMs force dealers to take the crap vehicles if they are to get the good ones. You have a vehicle that started off as a hard sell to the crowd that normally buys the vehicle and then you make it so the price is astronomical...forget the dealer reluctance, what did you think was going to happen?

[1]:https://youtu.be/F0SIL-ujtfA?t=532

Re: Ford F-150 Lightning outsold the Cybertruck and was then canceled for poor sales

#152

Post by mebizzle »

aeternum wrote: post #118
CursedSilicon wrote: post #8

I'm sure the usual detractors will be here to whine "Electrek is biased against Tesla!" To which I would ask: Is it "bias" because they simply report on Tesla frequently? Would it be "less biased" if they ignored Tesla? Obviously Electrek can't simply invent positive press for Tesla to report on. Putting that aside though. The Cybertruck by all measures has been an abject failure. Its production run was so limited th…

Fred Lambert (Electrek founder) was pro-tesla and was using his site to get a huge number of referral credits. Then Tesla changed the rules on that referral program. That's what triggered the beef. Fred sold all shares, took down all the pro-tesla articles, and posts nearly exclusively only negative tesla articles since. Seems both parties were/are within legal rights, but it is clearly bias.

Literally the only people who can think that this dude is anywhere remotely objective is if you are already a Tesla hater; he posts qualifications in every title and always adjusts the wording and tone to be negative. Every Electrek's take on an article is him describing how he warned everyone about the Elon/Tesla heel turn as you laid it out. It screams confirmation bias but since he isn't a journalist there's no code of ethics he's bound to follow.

Re: Ford F-150 Lightning outsold the Cybertruck and was then canceled for poor sales

#153

Post by drewda »

ActorNightly wrote: post #82
grouchomarx wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I think the timing of the Cybertruck starting deliveries roughly aligning with when Elon got heavily involved in politics That and also it's just a bad product. >That said, even though it's not to my taste, I do admire that they dared to do something different and took a big gamble on it. A pickup truck should just be max utility, especially if you're a manufacturer making your first one edit: agree there's a market…

>A pickup truck should just be max utility, The problem is as soon as you go EV, you use a lot of utility from the get go. With a truck specifically, because its a brick aerodynamically. There is no reason to buy a Cybertruck or Lightning when you can get a gas or hybrid F150 (or a Raptor) for a little bit more, and be able to sit at 80 mph on highways without worrying about range. The biggest suprise about the light…

Here's a different aspect of utility: The F150 Lightning includes 120V and optionally 240V outlets, so it replaces the need to carry a separate gas-powered generator.

That's probably more relevant to fleet vehicles for construction and maintenance firms than to individuals towing boats. But just to offer an example of how the F150 Lightning is a great fit for certain uses.

Re: Ford F-150 Lightning outsold the Cybertruck and was then canceled for poor sales

#154

Post by Workaccount2 »

mdavid626 wrote: post #22
Workaccount2 wrote: post #17

It's a shame the Lightning got discontinued. As an EV owner, it sucks that the main thing holding the technology back is misconceptions and misunderstanding, rather than actual practical matters. People think EVs are cars with tanks of electrons, and run aground the same way you would if you thought horses were cars full of hay. It's a different transport tool that gives the same results, you just have to know how to…

I disagree that EV-s are held back by misconceptions. More their price and range.

A 600 mile trip can (theoretically) be done with 1 charge, because you leave home with full range, and arrive with 0 charge (and fill up overnight). That one charge is done while eating dinner, or spaced out in increments over the course of the trip, stops which you would take anyway. I know few people who want to bang out 10 hours without stopping for at least 1-2 hours over the course of the trip. And those who do, can be the edge case with gas cars.

So you need to go 600 miles, and you need 1 full charge worth of energy during that.

If that one charge takes 1 hour, you can also break it up into four 15 minute sessions at any time of your chosing.

I'm sorry, but almost no regular person does 10 hours without at least four 15 minute stops.

Range is not at all the problem people make it out to be.

Re: Ford F-150 Lightning outsold the Cybertruck and was then canceled for poor sales

#155

Post by pixl97 »

catigula wrote: post #114
a4isms wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lifestyle sells. I drive a wagon. Of course wagon owners talk about the utility. And yet, you can buy a wagon with a twin-turbo V8 engine. What's the "sportwagon" segment all about? Certainly not going to Home Depot to buy four toilets for the new house, it's about putting your $15,000 Cannondale Black Ink MTB on the roof and swanking up to the trailhead.

The brain is a confabulation/justification engine. In reality ideal utility is likely found in the shape of a 2008 Toyota Camry and a U-Haul truck rental when necessary.

You may underestimate how much consumption some people in the US have and why a Camry wouldn't work. Hell, for the amount of hobby project stuff I bring home on a bi-weekly basis a car just doesn't cut it. Then again, I'm not sure where I fit in the average population.

Re: Ford F-150 Lightning outsold the Cybertruck and was then canceled for poor sales

#156

Post by mdavid626 »

Workaccount2 wrote: post #133
mdavid626 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree that EV-s are held back by misconceptions. More their price and range.

Range is the misconception, because people view range through the "sit and fill up then drive till empty" paradigm. That is not how EVs work or how they should be used. They should be charged overnight/when you are doing something else, and on road trips should be charged to align with other stops even if those stops are 10 minutes. It's rare that I have ever done the "sit in the car for 40 minutes waiting for charge…

That’s exactly the problem. I’d be happy to use an EV daily, as I drive short distances. But when I drive longer, then I don’t want to waste hours on charging.

The other day I drove 700km in just about 5.5 hours (German Autobahn). Few stops to pee. With EV that would be few hours more (!). If this doesn’t bother you, then it’s fine. It matters to me though.

Sometimes I also drive early in the morning 600km, and in the afternoon back, so I’m home until 22:00. With EV, that’s just impossible.

Re: Ford F-150 Lightning outsold the Cybertruck and was then canceled for poor sales

#157

Post by WheatMillington »

billti wrote: post #13

I think the timing of the Cybertruck starting deliveries roughly aligning with when Elon got heavily involved in politics hurt it quite a bit. It is such a distinctive vehicle with a strong association with Elon, that there was an immediate brand association. It may have had poor sales anyway, but it certainly didn't help that many folks on the left, who are typically the most 'pro EV', had a large 'anti-Elon' shift…

You can attribute the failure of this vehicle to politics if you like, but it's fairly obvious to anyone watching why it failed - it came out at double the proposed priced with half the proposed range. It's not even the hideous design, there were hundreds of thousands of "pre orders" who knew about the horrible design. It's the price and range.

Re: Ford F-150 Lightning outsold the Cybertruck and was then canceled for poor sales

#158

Post by scottyah »

alistairSH wrote: post #80
brokensegue wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason is personal preference. Same reason people buy sports cars. I also wish their preferences were different

Sports cars largely don't have any of the negative externalities of trucks.

Their fuel consumption is about the same, what externalities are you referring to?

Re: Ford F-150 Lightning outsold the Cybertruck and was then canceled for poor sales

#159

Post by horsawlarway »

tracker1 wrote: post #81
horsawlarway wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> At the size of Ford, sales numbers can be at a different mark for what is considered successful than others. Does this really hold when Tesla has a considerably higher valuation? Tesla is sitting at an egregious 30x market cap of Ford. If anything... I'd expect them to have sales targets that are ~30x the size of Ford. When you consider that Ford also makes many more models than Tesla (Tesla has like 8 core models…

For 2025, Ford sold about 2.2 million vehicles, Tesla was like 1.6m. Given, more variety for Ford... But there's also margins and supply chains to consider. The Cybertruck is kind of ugly and very expensive... not to mention that no EV truck really does towing well. The fact that the Lightning sold more than the Cybertruck doesn't make it a success. The Cybertruck, imo, is not too different than a limited run sports…

I'm not sure what the takeaway from your comment is?

I'm not arguing that the F-150 lightning was a commercial success for Ford, I'm suggesting that the argument that Tesla should be held to a different standard on sales numbers feels pretty shaky.

Both of these are basically "concept cars", and neither company has really delivered.

Both are expensive to make, and have very high sticker prices with low/negative margins (Tesla claims cybertruck is profitable, but they're sitting on an absolutely insane inventory count, which they can't seem to sell... so again... my guess is they're deep in the red for this model if you look at total costs instead)

Re: Ford F-150 Lightning outsold the Cybertruck and was then canceled for poor sales

#160

Post by etc-hosts »

dzonga wrote: post #78

F-150 Lightning is better vehicle than Cybertruck - however Ford is a political company (not like Musk) as in the fortunes of Ford lie to an extent with politicians, unions etc so hopefully ford can turn the F-150 into an Extended Range Electrical Vehicle

The Musk suite of companies all exist at least partly to promote Musk's politics and policies.
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