You kinda sorta had an idea this news was coming, considering the signals Ford sent out just prior to the holidays.

All was not well on their Lightning F-150 E truck line.

…You can see it pretty clearly in a chart of the sales. Ford has 30% of all the Lightnings they ever made still on hand.

Wow

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 18, 2023

As I noted last October, the company announced they’d be cutting production on the Lightning line they’d just fired back up a couple months before.

….Sales are so lackluster and orders so non-existent, that the company has had to “temporarily” cut a shift at the plant where the E truck is manufactured.

…The [UAW] official, who leads the union’s local chapter that represents workers at the truck factory, said in a letter dated Tuesday that the automaker was considering canceling the shift and indicated that it was looking to build more gas-engine trucks instead.

…“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that our sales for the Lightning have tanked,”

700 people are affected and Ford is going to try to rotate them through shifts.

Ford Motor (F.N) said on Friday it will temporarily cut one of three shifts at the Michigan plant that builds its electric F-150 lightning pickup truck, citing multiple constraints, including supply chain issues…

And again, there had been yet another messaging disconnect with our Imperial Masters. The White House and POTATUS were taking their cues from more Experts™, this time their “chief economist.”

What they imagine is happening vice what’s really going on never, ever synchs up. #Clueless

The White House on Monday released a “Bidenomics” report that touted the “rapidly growing” electric vehicle market. Just hours later, Ford announced plans to cut the production of its electric truck in half, citing insufficient demand.

The report, which came from White House chief economist Heather Boushey, claimed the “U.S. consumer market for EVs is rapidly growing” and touted President Joe Biden’s efforts to meet that “growing demand by setting ambitious goals for accelerating the EV transition.” Ford threw cold water on those claims hours later, when a leaked memo from the automaker revealed that it plans to produce just 1,600 F-150 Lightnings per week in 2024, a significant reduction from the 3,200 it initially planned to produce. The memo said “changing market demands” motivated the cuts.

“We’ll continue to match production with consumer demand,” a Ford spokeswoman said.

Here we are now, only 2 1/2 months removed from all that news. Today Ford has just announced another downsizing of the shifts on the Lightning line, with significant personnel numbers included this time – 1400 Ford workers are affected.

Ford to Cut Production of Electric F-150 Pickups Amid Weaker Demand
Automaker now expects slower EV sales growth than anticipated in 2024

Ford will slash production of its electric pickup, the F-150 Lightning, after seeing weaker-than-anticipated demand.

The automaker said Friday that it was looking to balance production, sales growth and profitability for its electric pickup trucks. Ford said it expects slower EV sales growth than anticipated in 2024.

But there’s a really interesting twist. There won’t be any shifts to try to rotate these folks through, as Ford has effectively stripped the Lightning line to its manufacturing bare minimum. Doing the math, one would think they’d be filing for unemployment and learning to code, right?

Not in this case, at least not yet, for half if not more of those facing job-hunting.

American fondness for the mucho-reviled and forever-under-assault internal combustion engine plus our love for bad-asterisked, off-road capable 4x4s has momentarily saved the day and those jobs.

That’s kind of ironic, no? SCHWEET

…In a sign that traditional gasoline-powered vehicle demand remains strong, Ford also said that it was hiring nearly 900 new employees and adding 700 employees from its Rouge Complex for a third shift at its Michigan Assembly plant. This will allow the automaker to increase production of Bronco and Bronco Raptor sport-utility vehicles, and Ranger and Ranger Raptor pickup trucks.

GAWD, that’s gotta burn some Green butts (Tickles me pink, of course.).

And actually, from what I’ve been able to find in some cursory research about the Ranger Raptor, it’s not really surprising it’s doing well, although at it’s starting price point with current interest rates – north of $57K GULP – they should be super happy it is and lighting candles. The UAW should be on their knees thanking the fossil fuel gods.

The Raptor is a mid-size pick-up that had been only available in Mexico, etc., and now they’ll be made here. As the proud former owner of an ’85 Toyota SR-5 4×4, I have missed the sight of those smaller, more fuel efficient but wickedly cool vehicles on the road in this age of the F-2/350+, Chevy Silverado monsters, and even bigger behemoths.

No one has wanted smaller trucks. They all had to be the size of semis.

But now it seems like scaling down a bit – this is still significantly larger and more powerful than my ancient little four-banger was – is hip again, judging by the reception this truck is getting. And the reviews I ran across were all pretty much waxing poetic.

Particularly after hearing the horror stories coming out of Alberta, Chicago, and points frozen concerning anything electric in the recent deep, deep freeze (soon to be repeated)? All those news reports last week did was reinforce everyone’s worst suspicions about the limitations of relying on EVs of any stripe in extreme conditions.

It’s really no wonder the Lightning’s languishing and the Raptor’s roaring, along with its in stable siblings.