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Ford Considers Scrapping F-150 EV Truck (reuters.com) 181

Posted by BeauHD from the supply-and-demand dept.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Ford executives are considering scrapping the electric version of the F-150 pickup truck as losses, supply setbacks, slow sales, and the arrival of a cheaper midsize EV truck undermine the business case for its full-size electric pickup. Reuters reports: Last month, a union official told Reuters that Ford was pausing production at the Dearborn, Michigan, plant that makes its F-150 Lightning electric pickup due to a fire at a supplier's aluminum factory. "We have good inventories of the F-150 Lightning and will bring Rouge Electric Vehicle Center back up at the right time, but don't have an exact date at this time," Ford said in a statement on Thursday.

The WSJ report added that General Motors executives have discussed discontinuing some electric trucks, citing people familiar with the matter. The Detroit three, which includes Ford, GM and Chrysler-parent Stellantis, have rolled back their ambitious plans for EVs in the United States, pivoting to their gasoline-powered models.
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Ford Considers Scrapping F-150 EV Truck

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  • Ford: we can't make money selling an EV Truck so we will use the old supply-chain excuse to make it look like we still want to keep making them but can't for reasons outside our control.

    • Re:Translation (Score:5, Insightful)

      by RossCWilliams ( 5513152 ) on Thursday November 06, 2025 @07:54PM (#65778874)
      I am not sure how any American manufacturer can be confident of their supply chain for EV's given the trade conflicts with China. And they sure as hell can't compete with China's auto industry in the world markets. They are going to go the way of US Steel trying to sustain a dying industry with legacy technology. They should be trying to bring in Chinese partners. But that ain't going to happen.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

        US is a massive manufacturer of steel to this day.

        It's specialty is recycled steel, which requires a specific technology set. Notably it's a common feature of developed nations that have already built up their main infrastructure to modern standards, because that leads to having a very large amount of recyclable steel you need to do something with as you renew your infrastructure over time.

        PRC swallowed virgin steel production, which is common for nations building up infrastructure, and having very little r

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Anonymous Coward
          US is a massive importer of steel. Even with the massive tariffs.

      • Re:Translation (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Kisai ( 213879 ) on Thursday November 06, 2025 @10:13PM (#65779130)

        No, and hell no.

        The big three more or less are the survivors of the Japanese and Korean "cheaper vehicle" imports.

        The problem today is that China and pretty much undermine any country's economy by subsidizing their domestic production. Like go look at how many Chinese EV's are just fake-sold and then sit in lots, fields, or are abandoned with no mileage.

        We should not be allowing China to dump stuff into North America, no matter what it is. But I also don't really give much of a care if "big three" keel over from cheaper EV's. The reason is that these companies don't want to innovate. There are much better, nicer, vehicles out there from European and Japanese manufacturers, and it seems like these companies just want to put fingers in their ears and hope that countries don't start passing laws about requiring EV-Only city vehicles, or only vehicles capable of towing X weight can still use diesel.

        Like congestion is going nowhere. Without any big moves to transit, car ownership growth is just going to be flat. Because younger people can't afford homes, they're going to live out of their cars, and they definitely are not going to live out of a gasoline car that they can't plugin somewhere to stay warm.

        • It's incrementalism, the US auto manufacturers long long term in effect business strategy has to be raising the cost and complexity and piling on extras into cars and trucks for the last 40 years with the 'hope' that the USA buyers will keep buying overpriced vehicles to keep up with the neighbors.

          The odd thing is that the US has kept subsidizing the auto manufacturers, 2008 financial crisis and taking on GM's pension obligations for example, as insurance in case there is a need for a very large number of m

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by cusco ( 717999 )

            Lee Iaccoca proclaimed to the world that he had saved Chrysler, meanwhile the guys who actually worked there knew better. Jimmy Carter saved Chrysler. He committed the Federal government to only buy Chrysler vehicles for ten years (except mail trucks), backstopped their loans, and committed the Pentagon to buying a huge number of Abrams tanks. Even Iaccoca's claim to have invented the Chrysler minivan was BS, the company's copy of Toyota's minivan was already being tested on the proving grounds where my

        • The big three more or less are the survivors of the Japanese and Korean "cheaper vehicle" imports.

          Not really cheaper, just better. And two of those companies (GM and Chrysler) did not really survive. They went bankrupt and reorganized.

        • Re:Translation (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Cyberax ( 705495 ) on Friday November 07, 2025 @12:08AM (#65779332)

          The problem today is that China and pretty much undermine any country's economy by subsidizing their domestic production.

          No, they don't. The competition in China is cut-throat and the exported cars are not any cheaper than the ones in China. That's really all there is to it.

        • Re:Translation (Score:4, Insightful)

          by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Friday November 07, 2025 @04:04AM (#65779588)

          The problem today is that China and pretty much undermine any country's economy by subsidizing their domestic production.

          How is that a problem? ${Country} has been subsidizing ${Local_Industry} since governments were first formed. I find it disingenious for Americans to complain about China subsidizing EV production. Specifically Americans. The American whose taxes bailed out Ford and GM. The only reason they survived is government support.

          The bigger problem is Western governments have been insanely fucking shortsighted and *not* subsidised EV production enough, leaving it open to someone with more resources to start cornering the market. By the way the EU analysed the level of subsidy provided by the Chinese government and applied tariffs appropriately. The effect isn't as big as you make it out.

          Like go look at how many Chinese EV's are just fake-sold and then sit in lots, fields, or are abandoned with no mileage.

          And go look at the ones which aren't fake-sold. It seems like your view of the industry is based on shock news stories from the Daily Mail. If we all followed that it stands to reason that no one ever bought a Cybertruck, after all they were being abandoned in shopping mall lots as well. The reality is the stories about fake-sale EVs were not different than any story about cars when certain government deadlines hit. They were little more than a curious blip intended to meet short term numbers. Yes there's Chinese EVs which were fake-sold, and they are a tiny minority of the total production.

          We should not be allowing China to dump stuff into North America

          You say dump as if it's trash as opposed to what they actually are: very nice competently manufactured cars with great bang for buck. There's a reason why Ford's CEO drives a Chinese made EV, and then proceeded to publicly praise it. And it's not because his bonus is tied to tanking his share price.

          Disclosure: I drive a Chinese made EV. A friend owns a Geely directly. Both are cars that I would buy again in a heartbeat. They are cars I chose over Audi, VW, Toyota, Tesla and Renault, all which were I test drove at the time. And while it wasn't a testdrive I dare say I'm absolutely shocked at the one time I had the true horrendous displeasure of driving a Mustang Mach-e, talk about "dump".

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by cusco ( 717999 )

        I remember in the '80s when US Steel sold one of their "outdated" factories to Brasil, at least in part because the CEO got a nice bonus for improving profits that quarter. My first thought was, "So now Brasil won't have to buy steel from the US any more. That sounds terribly short sighted to me." It didn't occur to me at the time that the CEO would be off looting some other company a few years later so he didn't give a flying fuck about the long term future of the corporation.

    • Ford: we can't make money selling an EV Truck so we will use the old supply-chain excuse to make it look like we still want to keep making them but can't for reasons outside our control.

      That may not be far from the truth. The last round of UAW strikes resulted in them having significant veto power against EVs at the big three manufacturers, namely in hampering the ability of them to grow the supply chain. Few democrats will acknowledge it, but UAW members by and large really hate EVs, even though the official stance of the union might say otherwise.

  • As you would do (Score:2, Interesting)

    by devslash0 ( 4203435 )

    ...with any other low demand investment.

    I think we may need to add EV to the recently published 3 bubbles.

    • Re:As you would do (Score:5, Insightful)

      by test321 ( 8891681 ) on Thursday November 06, 2025 @08:22PM (#65778934)

      I'm not sure it's a about a bubble here. AI could be a bubble, because of the astronomical sunken cost and low adoption. EVs on the contrary have good sales forecast (though not increasing as fast as hoped for) in several key markets. That Ford can't sell their electric Canyonero is a specific problem related to the inadequateness of this offer with the customer profile and use case for such vehicle. The demise of the F-150 EV It does not challenge the ability of other manufacturers, in the US and in other parts of the world, to continue with their EV successes.

    • Except for oil and ocal of course. Which continue to receive massive subsidies globally. Not to mention supply side control of oil

    • How are EV's a bubble? They make up a tiny portion of the market and are following a standard technological growth trend. The only bubble in the EV world is Tesla's over inflated share-price.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      If the US gives up on EVs, it will be the outlier in a world that is fast adopting them. There will be economic consequences as manufacturers fall even further behind on the technology, and US emissions from fossil fuel vehicles remain higher than rivals. The cost of transporting things is falling below the cost of fossil fuels that were previously needed. It's not great for the health of Americans either.

      The fact that Ford can't seem to succeed here is yet another sign that Ford is a failure and only survi

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by cusco ( 717999 )

      Only in the US. Adoption everywhere else in the world, including in Third World countries, is only growing. This just may be another of those things which we're uniquely incompetent to do, like providing healthcare to everyone.

  • This is the problem with the modern finance system. Executives are going to jeopardize the longterm growth and health of their companies in order to have a couple of quarters that are slightly better than if they don't cancel their EVs.

    It would be like doubling down on vacuum tubes after the introduction of the integrated circuit.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by kenh ( 9056 )

      What?

      They lose money on every EV F-150 they sell.

      To continue making them is non-sensical. What can Ford sell that generates enough PROFIT to at least offset the LOSSES of every F-150 EV?

      They have a huge unsold inventory of $100K pickup trucks, why keep making more F-150 EVs just to park them in an airport parking lot somewhere?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by IronTek ( 153138 )

        I mean, call me crazy, but they could only make as many as they can sell. Which isn't zero.

        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by innocent_white_lamb ( 151825 )

          Ok, you're crazy. :)

          Not really, I guess, but you don't understand how things are manufactured at scale.

          There's a minimum number of sales of a product that have to be made in order for the overall production line to be profitable. In some cases that minimum number can be made slightly smaller by increasing the per-unit price of the finished product, but there's also a limit to how much people will pay for something.

          "Economy of scale" is a real thing, and some expenses are fixed whether you make lots or a fe

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by cusco ( 717999 )

        So after billions of investment and years of work they finally introduce their electric monster truck. Now barely three years later they're going to throw away the entire investment of time, money, and supply chain rather than modify it to be more of a product that customers actually want.. This is why China is eating our lunch, short-term thinking always overrules long term planning, mostly because of the game of Executive Musical Chairs where MBAs with no real-world experience rotate through the C-suite

  • full-size electric pickup (Score:5, Insightful)

    by darkain ( 749283 ) on Thursday November 06, 2025 @08:03PM (#65778902) Homepage

    "full-size electric pickup"

    That's your problem. And you even admit it.

    "the arrival of a cheaper midsize EV truck undermine the business case"

    MOST PEOPLE DON'T WANT A "FULL-SIZED" FUCKING TRUCK. THEY'RE TOO GODDAMN BIG.

    A friend of mine has one, and its been nice for a few very VERY niche things we've needed to haul, otherwise, the thing is a goddamn massive tank that is far too large to easily park in any tight parking lot. It is a total pain in the ass getting around town in the thing.

    Back in my day, the F-150 was a small to mid-sized truck, not an overwhelming behemoth. Release a small sized and mid sized electric pickup. That's it. That's the business plan. YOU LITERALLY just admitted it. So just do it yourself !?

    • Lots of people want full-sized pickups, unfortunately. The F150 has been one of the top selling vehicles in north america for literal decades, and while it used to be smaller, it's been pretty big for at least 10 years.

      But the Lightning is SUPER expensive and a lot of the folks buying full-sized trucks are doing it for the optics. They want to appear tough and rugged, and they can't do that without a loud engine, I guess?

      The depreciation on EVs is also astronomical. Pay $100k for a Lightning and it'll be wo

      • Re:full-size electric pickup (Score:4, Insightful)

        by kenh ( 9056 ) on Thursday November 06, 2025 @09:20PM (#65779062) Homepage Journal

        Quote>I agree that people SHOULD want smaller trucks, or—get this—CARS, but the big car companies love their margins. Ford's eliminated every passenger car in their lineup except for the Mustang (even the Mustang Mach-e is classified as an SUV for some reason).

        People want smaller pickups, just look at the market for older small pickups... The issue is there is little profit in passenger cars, there is big profit in big pickups and SUVs. If you can make a quality, attractive economical passenger car, you'll sell a ton of them (Honda Accord?) but that's hard - on the other hand, you can make much, much more selling big expensive pickup trucks/SUVs.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by cusco ( 717999 )

          People leave notes on my windshield all the time asking to buy my 24 year old Tacoma, so there's definitely a market. If the knuckle-draggers in the Ford C-suites were to change their assembly line to sell something like my truckette it would financially be cheaper than throwing the whole thing away but that requires long term thinking, which we don't do in the US any longer.

    • Every time they do, it ends up being way too big and with the worst engine.

      Take the maverick for example. In the focus lineup the 2.3 turbo is the top and highest performance gas wasting engine.

      Thats what they put in their lightweight truck. Where is the 1.0 at here with a manual transmission?

      Gear ratios are horrible. The point is is that everything is done to make it not quite worth going to the small truck over just buying the bigger F150.

      Yet, I can draw on the back of a napkin some numbers that would act

    • Re:full-size electric pickup (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Smidge204 ( 605297 ) on Thursday November 06, 2025 @08:36PM (#65778966) Journal

      > MOST PEOPLE DON'T WANT A "FULL-SIZED" FUCKING TRUCK. THEY'RE TOO GODDAMN BIG.

      Counterpoint: The Ford F series are the best selling vehicles in the US. Second place is the Chevy Silverado, which is another full size pickup. If you broke out just the F-150 I think it's just barely behind the Silverado (Looks like ~420K vs ~410K so far this year?)

      The physical size isn't the problem. Smaller pickups like the Honda Santa Cruz and Ford Maverick do not sell well. The kinds of people who actually want a pickup truck do not seem to actually want a midsize or compact pickup truck.

      Cheaper, on the other hand... that's something you can sell to the masses. Sounds to me that the market for EV pickups is still there but the price isn't alluring enough, and maybe people are willing to compromise on the size to get an EV truck that's more affordable.

      > Back in my day

      It ain't your day anymore; the world has moved on.
      =Smidge=

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by caseih ( 160668 )

        The problem with midsize trucks is that they aren't actually much smaller than a full size truck now, except that for some inexplicable reason the box is about an inch too narrow to put a sheet of plywood in the back. Also these midsize trucks are nearly as expensive as the full size and, like you say, they don't get significantly better fuel efficiency than the full size truck. Given these facts it's no wonder North Americans prefer the full-size trucks.

        As for the Lightning, it is a reasonably good fit f

      • I read that the typical millionaire in the U.S. has an F150.

        • That's probably because the "Typical millionaire in the US" is likely a farmer or rancher.

          =Smidge=

      • > MOST PEOPLE DON'T WANT A "FULL-SIZED" FUCKING TRUCK. THEY'RE TOO GODDAMN BIG.

        Counterpoint: The Ford F series are the best selling vehicles in the US. Second place is the Chevy Silverado, which is another full size pickup. If you broke out..

        ..those that actually USE a truck vs. the consunarcissist who buys the most popular truck, you’d find the reality to your counterpoint.

        The amount of mud Generation TruckYuppie has dared get on their shoes, can fit in a 5-gallon bucket. The amount of times the bed hauls more than air and a fashionable color-matched hat, can be counted on one hand annually.

        The chasm between truck want and need in America, is wider than any full-sized justification. If you find more evidence, I’ll believe otherwi

        • Whether or not people use the vehicles for their supposed purpose or to the full capabilities is completely irrelevant to the sales numbers.

          I'm sorry that the world does not conform to what you imagine it should be. The reality is full size pickup trucks are the best selling vehicle type in the US by a wide margin. Feel free to masturbate your is-ought sophistry until you go blind though...
          =Smidge=

          • The world only "conforms" to that luxury when it has the financial independence to do so.

            If full-sized trucks with every type of plastic time-bomb crap shoved under the hood keep pricing themselves well above $50K, they will likely see how a Recession conforms to their delusions by letting the 2026 models rot away. If they can make room next to all the unsold 2025 models.

            And that's just the problem with new car sales. I'll bet I know what's just might become the mostest repo'ed vehicle type in the US soon

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by RobinH ( 124750 )
        There's another detail that often gets missed. I don't know the details myself, but the way it's been described to me, mid-size pickup trucks fall into a category under the EPA or something which requires them to meet much more stringent environmental and other regulations that full-size pickups are exempt from, and at the end of the day it means that the price difference between a mid-size and a full-size truck was much smaller than it should be based on the amount of materials and extra functionality you

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by cusco ( 717999 )

        The Santa Cruz and it's like are NOT TRUCKS, they're toys for carrying around other toys. My 2002 Tacoma with the five speed and the smallest four-banger you could get is a truck, and I treat it like one. No one is going to fill the bed of a Santa Cruz with a yard of manure or 1200 pounds of landscaping blocks (which is do with some frequency). My truckette is 24 years old this month, and looking around there is no reasonable replacement for it on the market in the US (the new Tacoma is larger than the 2

    • Re:full-size electric pickup (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Kernel Kurtz ( 182424 ) on Thursday November 06, 2025 @08:53PM (#65778998)

      MOST PEOPLE DON'T WANT A "FULL-SIZED" FUCKING TRUCK. THEY'RE TOO GODDAMN BIG.

      Here in Canada full size pickups from Ford, GM, and Ram are the 1st, 3rd and 4th best selling vehicles. 2nd is Toyota RAV4. Only one car made the top ten.

      https://www.brockfordsales.com... [brockfordsales.com]

      The suggestion by many here that people are somehow involuntarily coerced into buying these trucks is ludicrous. It is not a conspiracy. People buy them because they are nice and capable conveyances and they can afford them. Manufacturers make them because people like buying them.

      More people need to spend more time trying to enjoy their own lives instead of obsessing over what other people are doing.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by caseih ( 160668 )

        The big three hardly make any cars anymore. It's all SUVs, crossovers, and trucks.

        • The big three hardly make any cars anymore.

          Because nobody bought them when they did.

          • Re: (Score:3)

            by skam240 ( 789197 )

            Because the Japanese and now Korean ones were always better. There's no reason this has to be the case though, most of these companies make their vehicles in the US / Canada and Mexico just like the US companies do so they should have similar expenses.

            • Because the Japanese and now Korean ones were always better.

              And indeed you can still buy them here, but the majority of vehicles on the road are nonetheless trucks and SUVs. Did I mention only one car (the Civic) made the top ten?

      • Re: full-size electric pickup (Score:4, Insightful)

        by reanjr ( 588767 ) on Friday November 07, 2025 @12:31AM (#65779372) Homepage

        "People buy them because they are nice and capable conveyances and they can afford them"

        Most people I've talked to specifically about this issue say they got them because they want to sit higher up because they are afraid of driving and the large size and seeing out further gives them a sense of security. In other words, they get them because there are other pickups on the road making it hard for them to drive comfortably. It's like mutually assured destruction with nukes. We can't allow a size/height gap!

        There are countless sedans and coupes that are nice and capable conveyances. That doesn't explain people buying oversized pickups.

        • This is the mentality of America and it's exactly the same with guns or nukes. Better have mine ready just in case!

          I feel less safe when I drive a truck not more. I've driven big box trucks and the F-350 without an issue, but I would never want to own one unless it was absolutely necessary like for a business that involved hauling really heavy things.

        • Most people I've talked to specifically about this issue say they got them because they want to sit higher up because they are afraid of driving

          I'm not very acquainted with this fear of driving set. People who are afraid to drive probably shouldn't. Like at all. My equal and opposite anecdote is that nobody I know who owns a truck or SUV (and I know a lot) wishes they had bought a car, with the exception of a handful who wish they could buy station wagons (but not ordinary wagons - more like M340i Tourings or S6 Avants - these people are not afraid of driving).

          There are countless sedans and coupes that are nice and capable conveyances. That doesn't explain people buying oversized pickups.

          It may not explain it to you. That is a specific rather than a general problem.

      • "More people need to spend more time trying to enjoy their own lives instead of obsessing over what other people are doing."

        Well jesus christ man, if we can't spend our idle hours scolding other people for what they wear/do/drive/eat/believe, what's the fucking point of social media even FOR then?

        • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

          by Kernel Kurtz ( 182424 )
          That is the problem with the world today. There is no more "live and let live", everybody wants to run everyone else's life, and that is true of both the left and right. I have no use for any of them.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by strikethree ( 811449 )

        More people need to spend more time trying to enjoy their own lives instead of obsessing over what other people are doing.

        I would, but they keep running over people that they can't see... so it is kind of my problem to worry about.

        • Better driver training and testing seems the obvious and common sense solution. That would be discriminatory against incompetent people though, so don't hold your breath.

    • I quite like my Colorado. It's the correct size for what I need, and it can pull the camper as well.

      And that brings up the point. People who have full size trucks (especially the diesels) tend to pull things. EVs are great at peak power, but now we are going to keep this up for three hours? What was the range of the electric F-150 pulling a decent load? Much less than advertised.

    • Speak for yourself, I love full sized pickup trucks.

    • Big pickups are not restricted by EPA mileage requirements. People that buy them just want a sizeable and powerful pickup and don't care about mileage. They expect the feds to keep gas under $3/gallon.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by skam240 ( 789197 )

      MOST PEOPLE DON'T WANT A "FULL-SIZED" FUCKING TRUCK. THEY'RE TOO GODDAMN BIG.

      Are you not an American or if you are do you not get out much? I ask because Americans buy shit tons of oversized vehicles. Providing these giant vehicles is pretty much the business model nowadays for all of our legacy auto companies. The regular F-150 sells like crazy for instance and that's a beast of a truck.

      That's the shitty part about this, we finally had a EV version of these incredibly wasteful vehicles that should work for quite a lot of these folks but it isn't selling. We should be looking at why

    • Function is the issue, not being a pickup. This may be painfully difficult to understand for BEV zealots but not everyone WANTS what leftists (it's political, you want social control by regulation) attempt to coerce people into buying. Build what customers want, not what someone who is not a customer wishes they should want.

      Compete or be cast out.

      I and millions of others would be delighted to buy a BEV truck that equals or surpasses gassers in EVERY way with zero sacrifice of functions WE (not you) care abo

  • They needed a 20K Slate Truck (https://www.slate.auto/) and instead gave us something that costs as much as a condo. No, just no.

  • They cost too damn much.

  • I own a Lightning.. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Hank21 ( 6290732 ) on Thursday November 06, 2025 @09:55PM (#65779106)
    EXCELLENT first go from Ford at an electric pickup truck. Beat Musk to market and even taught him a lesson or two. The Lightning was supposed to be replaced in a few years anyway (T3) and most of us knew it as a science experiment. I applaud the engineering team who had impossible timelines, almost no budget and a seemingly impossible mandate to build an EV truck with as many off the shelf parts as possible. Does it have some short comings? Well, no more than it's ICE cousin- is it big? It's no bigger than the ICE version. It drives like a dream and I've used its "Full size" quite often to haul stuff. Maybe I'm the exception. It was a good learning platform for Ford and if/when they design an EV truck from the ground up, they'll have plenty of experience under their belt. Now is a good time to retreat, retool and rebuild. Chevy upped the ante, making the Lightning look long in the tooth. And let's not even talk about the cybertruck abomination. It only gets credit for laying down the gauntlet.

  • I own a Ford F-250, diesel, crew cab. My primary use is to tow my RV trailer, which weighs upwards of 12k lbs. (5600+ Kg). I use this RV roughly 7 weeks of the year, 4 weeks of which this year are actual business trips, and are fully tax deductible. Don't bother commenting on my needs or use case, there's a work reason. The truck has a 6.7L engine which produces 440hp (328Kw) & something around 975 ft/Lbs (~1300 nM?) of torque. When I'm not using the RV, It sits idle in my driveway at a ratio of so

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by MikeS2k ( 589190 )

      175hp / 131KW to maintain 65mph with the trailer seems quite a lot.. how big is this thing?

      Also I do agree with you about EV's and I am from a small country - EV zealots say "240 miles should be enough for anybody" but that is not always true.

      About the other comments saying "oil subsidies" - even if the Govt removed all Oil subsidies, so that Gas/Diesel suddenly cost 3 times as much - you'd still be better off in that use case, using Diesel over an EV - in my country a fast charger (30 mins) costs 80c per K

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by habig ( 12787 )

      That's why electric pickup trucks are failing. They only work for the "urban cowboy" types that drive them for show/comfort/want. Those with actual work to do, they're simply a non-starter.

      A suggested edit: electric pickups don't work well for people who want to haul trailers long distances. That's not everyone with "real work" to do. For example, contractors. They need trucks to quite literally do real work... around town. They're parked at the shop charging up over night. The Lightning hits a sweet spot here, as they're the same as the ICE version in terms of widgets but with more storage and a built-in "generator" to recharge all those Dewalts. But, most truck owners are not doing su

  • The F-150 Lightning was a ridiculous product. Way overpriced. Way too poorly constructed. It was fine as an introductory experimental model, like the Tesla Roadster or Model S. But it was just a prototype. And they needed to keep developing it to make it into a product.

  • Smaller EVs need smaller batteries. Maybe there is a clue in that statement for companies like Ford, Tesla, Rivian et al shitting out these 3 tonne monsters. People don't need these vehicles and smaller vehicles have better margins.
  • Oh well, I got a paid off gas truck with no issues. Don't need an EV truck that costs more than my house I had built !

    • Same here but I renovated my houses and built my workshops.

      I can retain my paid-for gassers for another 50 years (in the case of my '75 F350) or another ~26 years (F150s and one 5.3 Silverado) at trivial cost because they are designed to be repairable and are not vendor locked by electronic feature bloat.

      Early 2000 LS drivetrain trucks and vans already fetch high prices because later years are so intensely mechanic-hostile. (Mechanic of many decades here.)

      Driving used trucks let me easily pay off my homes a

  • Automakers not listening to the market (Score:3)

    by RobinH ( 124750 ) on Friday November 07, 2025 @07:47AM (#65779866) Homepage
    I work in the automotive industry. Two years ago the attitude across the automotive industry was that whole industry was switching to EVs and it was all expected to happen at a completely unrealistic pace. There was still a ton of charging infrastructure to build out, but the industry was expecting high double-digit growth and a rapid phasing out of gas vehicles within a few years. It was absurd at the time. Then a couple years later and the whole industry has flipped (yes, this has a lot to do with government subsidies and Trump winning the election) and now everyone thinks EVs are "dead". This is, of course, just as silly as the continual proclamations that the PC market is dead. In reality, the EV market will continue to exist and mature, and with a number of really promising battery technologies in the pipeline, not to mention a massive build-out of electrical generation capacity to support an AI future that's primed to burst for a few years, there's actually a bright future for EVs. Just not on the ridiculous timeline that everyone was thinking two years ago.
    • In the beginning it seemed like the electrical charging infrastructure was going to get built a lot quicker. But as it turned out a lot of it actually started breaking down before much was built.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by RobinH ( 124750 )
        If you're referring to the chargers, I agree. They have a bad reputation currently. But I think a lot of the effort and resources has to go into more generation and distribution infrastructure, which tends to be robust, but expensive and it takes a while. I do think the AI boom is going to leave us with a lot of unused electrical capacity, and I think that's a good think for EVs.
        • That's very curious because I have been told many times that the infrastructure is big enough already. That we already have everything we need in place and electricity customers will not be footing the bill for massive expansion no matter what they drive.
  • I use an F250 with a lift gate for my business, and pull trailers with it a few times a month. The big thing that most electric trucks lack is towing range. Towing a trailer kills mileage. I think what they need is an electric truck with a built in diesel generator for range extension. Run on battery for most day to day use, and have the generator kick on when the battery is low. Advertise it by comparing it to a freight train.
    They could even make it modular, just leave a space under the hood and make the

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