Ford Is Enticing Tesla Owners With Special F-150 Lightning EV Discount

Ford isn’t going after Tesla — just its customers.

The Big Three legacy car titan has unveiled a special discount for Tesla owners who purchase its F-150 Lightning EV pickup, just one day after Ford dropped the Lightning’s price by up to $5,500 to boost flagging demand.

Ford’s Focus

According to a dealer bulletin seen by the Cars Direct website, any F-150 Lightning version features an additional $1,500 rebate for customers who own or lease a 2008 or later Tesla model — and they can even transfer the deal to anyone in their household. If you throw in a tax credit and other incentives, it could mean the Lightning is 25% cheaper for Tesla owners, Cars Direct said.

Ford’s strategy is probably twofold: For starters, the company may be betting that Tesla fans either don’t love the idea of driving something that looks like this or just don’t want to wait until 2025 for Tesla’s entry-level Cybertruck, which will still cost around $61,000. Then there’s trying to solve the problem of selling F-150 Lightnings to anyone:

• Ford said earlier this year that it planned to scale back production of the 2024 Lightning as demand had slowed from early last year and inventory remains high. The company announced last week it was delaying production of new SUV and pickup electric models to focus on rolling out cheaper hybrid models by 2030.
• Ford plans to cut its staff by two-thirds (about 1,400 people) at its Dearborn, Michigan, factory that builds the F-150 Lightning. Half of the cuts will be jobs transferred to another plant, while the other half of staffers can choose between reassignment or a $50,000 retirement package.

Misery Loves Company: This isn’t just a Ford problem, and the mass transition to EVs doesn’t strike anyone as being around the corner. Folks who wanted an EV and could afford it have bought one, we still haven’t solved the battery-weight issue, government credits in both the US and Europe have expired, and we’re just slightly off our goal of building half a million charging stations. The exasperation was eloquently captured by Ford division chief Marin Gjaja, who recently told The Detroit News, “I don’t have a lot of patience for us getting the forecast wrong, but the reality is we all sort of got it wrong.”