Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

electrek.co

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

381–390 of 1001 posts

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

#381

Post by NewJazz »

WheatMillington wrote: post #157
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.

Eh, that might explain failure to convert preorders to sales. But it doesn't really matter when comparing to other vehicles in the same market.

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

#382

Post by b40d-48b2-979e »

scottyah wrote: post #352
sroerick wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's pretty funny how much truck rage there is here.

It’s crazy to me. If you hate automobiles, trucks still make the most sense- if you’re just carrying people and a grocery or two you should probably be on a bike or ebike.

That is quite a European take there. Most places in the US do not have safe pedestrian infrastructure mandating "share the road" policies with bicycles which puts you into direct contact with motor vehicle traffic, and suburban spread means you're probably not close enough to walk to your grocer.

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

#383

Post by vablings »

Ostrogoth wrote: post #343
vablings wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would be willing to say that a small Japanese kei truck is more than the average American would ever need for hauling furnishings, appliances and lumber. If you really need something bigger renting a trailer or truck is dirt cheap

>If you really need something bigger renting a trailer or truck is dirt cheap It’s neither convenient nor cheap to rent a trailer in much of the US. Major cities have options, rural areas less so. Full disclosure I have a mid-sized pickup, but I recently looked into renting a trailer for a landscaping project that was above the weight limit for my truck. First issue I ran into was that there were not any trailers ava…

Yeah, I cannot speak for rural US as much, I live in a large metropolitan area, and I would estimate around 1/5th cars here are pickups. You can rent a truck from Home Depot for as low as $100 a day.

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

#384

Post by zdragnar »

ErroneousBosh wrote: post #299
zdragnar wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A Maverick is hardly a working truck. It's got the same towing capacity of an older Kia Sportage. It's got front wheel drive (or awd). It's a car with a bed, not a truck.

> It's got the same towing capacity of an older Kia Sportage. How often do you need to pull 2000kg?

Several times a year at a minimum, and not always with good notice.

Towing weight is also a good proxy for frame strength. I do some light forestry work moving and bucking logs, freeing stuck cars, plowing snow in addition to towing trailers and equipment.

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

#385

Post by vablings »

jeff_skj wrote: post #172
vablings wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would be willing to say that a small Japanese kei truck is more than the average American would ever need for hauling furnishings, appliances and lumber. If you really need something bigger renting a trailer or truck is dirt cheap

Except most people also use trucks as daily driver vehicles. You can't exactly fit the wife and kids in a kei. Sure you could also own a car for that but now I need to own/store 2 vehicles instead of one.

Sure, you can. Two kids up front and your wife in the bed.

Jokes aside I could purchase a new hatchback and a small old Kei truck for a fraction of the cost of something like an f150

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

#386

Post by burnte »

doktor2un wrote: post #380

Short term Ford thinking again, that’s why they’re losing to Tesla.

If the Lightning OUTSOLD Tesla, is that really losing to them? Feels to me like an indictment of the scale that Tesla actually operates: an order of magnitude less than the big car makers. If Ford declares a truck that sold better than CT as a failure, it's because for their size it didn't sell enough. If that lesser number IS enough for Tesla, they're simply not a player in the same league as Ford.

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

#387

Post by asadotzler »

bluGill wrote: post #239
switchbak wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh sure, but look at the vast popularity of these monstrosities that never even see gravel. I get how you (and I) find that abhorrent, but there's clearly LOTS of folks that find a blinged out useless luxury pretend truck to be very attractive. I was in the market for a pickup recently. I had wanted to like the Cybertruck, but ... too damn ugly, too version 0.3, too many dweebs driving them, too many teething issues…

Trucks don't have to see gravel to be working trucks. If you use a truck for work purposes once a year it is likely cheaper to just drive a truck for everything than have a second car. Don't say rent a truck is an option - you probably can't rent a truck for most work purposes - most rentals have fine print against that, even if you can find a place to rent a truck the cost quickly gets to more than just owning your…

U-Haul rents work trucks and vans meant to be haulers and rented out specifically for hauling.

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

#388

Post by zdragnar »

cameldrv wrote: post #357
zdragnar wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A Maverick is hardly a working truck. It's got the same towing capacity of an older Kia Sportage. It's got front wheel drive (or awd). It's a car with a bed, not a truck.

I don't get this attitude. Everyone criticizes auto companies for not making a small truck anymore, and then Ford comes out with the Maverick and then you say it doesn't have enough towing capacity. It can tow 4000 lbs. That covers a whole lot of use cases. It also has a payload capacity of 1500 lbs which is quite respectable for a small truck. As for FWD vs. RWD, who cares? How does that affect your ability to move…

People want smaller, not weaker, trucks. The 1985 Ford ranger compact truck could tow over 3000 lbs base, and over 5000 with upgrades.

The Maverick only tows 2000 base, the 4000 is an upgrade package and only for trailers with their own brakes.

RWD is pretty functionally important for a vehicle to maintain control while towing significant weight, as all the weight sits on the back of the frame, and that's where you want the engine power to go.

The Maverick is not a working truck, which was my original point. In terms of what matters, it is worse in every way than a 40 year old design.

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

#389

Post by rootusrootus »

sroerick wrote: post #308
alexjplant wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A pickup truck should just be max utility, especially if you're a manufacturer making your first one The modern US pickup truck isn't built for utility. It's a $60,000 four-door lifted luxobarge with leather interior and a short bed. It signals (perceived) wealth while preserving working-class alignment. It can also be justified by way of having to pick up used furniture for TikTok refinish and flip projects or bim…

Yes, and they're awesome. Also much closer to 100k.

What's 100K? My Lightning was just under 51K out the door, and it is not a base model. You must be referring to something else? Maybe pickups in general? It's true that they do tend to be expensive.

Edit: OH, you mean the CT. Silly me.

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

#390

Post by SoftTalker »

bluGill wrote: post #333
alwa wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you in the US? Most Home Depot locations will rent you one of several sizes of work truck for as low as $20 for a quick there-and-back of 75 minutes, or ~$100-200 for a day. I understand Lowe’s to do something similar. U-Haul does trucks. And if your needs are more ambitious, there’s Sunbelt Rentals through much of the country and Enterprise’s Trucks arm as opposed to their more consumer-familiar operation. If I’…

Have you read the contract with Home Depot? You can't use their trucks for anything other than hauling your purchased from Home Depot home. I haven't see the contract with enterprise trucks, but I suspect it is similarity restricted against the type of damage this is normal from using a truck for work. You can at least tow a trailer with them. Their locations are not convenient for me either.

Yep. Renting a truck where you could actually haul a load of dirt or mulch, or tow anything, you will need to go to with a "commercial" rental which will be 5x the rate for a consumer rental or "Home Depot" truck rental. The Home Depot/consumer trucks don't even have a tow hitch.
Post reply on HN