Ford cuts electric pickup prices as competion heats up

The sticker prices for Ford's F-150 Lightning electric pickup trucks are being lowered by thousands of dollars across the board, the company has said, due to increased plant capacity, falling costs for battery raw materials and internal efforts to scale production by the Detroit automaker.

The price cuts across the Lightning line, some as deep as $10,000, appeared to be seen on Wall Street as more evidence of a coming price war among electrical vehicle makers.

The lower prices were announced two days after Tesla said its first production Cybertruck electric pickup had rolled off the assembly line, though nearly two years behind the original schedule and with little information about how much they may cost.

Rivian, another electric pickup maker, recently announced that its second quarter deliveries nearly tripled and its shares have been on a tear, rising more than 41 percent this month.

"Ford hears footsteps of Cybertruck and Rivian," said Wedbush Analyst Dan Ives.

Ford said this month that sales of its F-150 Lightning more than doubled in the second quarter, and rose 4.1 percent from the first three months of the year.

The updated MSRP for the Pro model, its lowest priced electric pickup, will be $49,995, down about $10,000.

The price for the high-end Platinum Extended Range version of the Lightning was cut from $98,074, to $91,995, a drop of more than $6,000.

"Shortly after launching the F-150 Lightning, rapidly rising material costs, supply constraints and other factors drove up the cost of the EV truck for Ford and our customers," said Marin Gjaja, chief customer officer, Ford Model e.

"We've continued to work in the background to improve accessibility and affordability to help to lower prices for...