Ford announced the electric F-150 Lightning in an optimistic moment in the electric vehicle era. The company - and many others - expected rapid growth for all of its future electrical products. At one point, Ford planned to sell up to 150,000 units of the electric pickup per year.

But last year, the company sold just 33,000 F-150 Lightning pickup trucks, and likely at a considerable loss. So it's no wonder some Ford executives are considering killing the project, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Fonte: Ford

No final decision has been made yet, sources told WSJ. But the move would come about a week after Ford itself began a campaign to promote Lightning's ability to power homes, including with smart charging to receive electricity when rates are cheapest and also return power to the grid with some participating utilities.

But as the WSJ notes, Ford's electric vehicle sales declined after the US tax credit ended. Total electric vehicle sales fell 24% in October, and the Lightning has been known as an expensive and loss-making vehicle for years. And now, it may no longer be useful for Ford to keep it in production.

Ford declined to comment with the InsideEVs whether it was considering canceling the F-150 Lightning.

To understand why the option might be on the table, you also need to understand how automotive regulations have changed. In the previous era of U.S. standards, automakers had to meet certain "fleet average" fuel economy targets. The more gasoline cars you wanted to sell, the more electric cars you would have to sell, basically.

So, since Ford loves making gas-powered F-150s, selling electric cars was a good way to keep the forces balanced. But Trump has ended America's fuel economy regulations while at the same time imposing tariffs that are driving up production prices.

So, suddenly, it became much more difficult to justify wasting money on a vehicle that no longer needs to be manufactured. Especially when consumer demand never lived up to expectations. A dealership owner told the WSJ that he doesn't place orders for F-150 Lightnings because no one wants to buy them.

What we can say is that the F-150 Lightning is the best-selling electric pickup truck in the United States - despite new competition from Tesla CyberTruck, Chevrolet Silverado EV, GMC, Hummer and Rivian - and recorded record sales in the third quarter.

Not that the F-150 Lightning is perfect, but its demise would leave Ford in a difficult situation. Because the potential for electric pickup trucks is incredible in the US, even though current products all seem to be money losers.

Still, a Ford spokesperson noted that the Lightning is the best-selling electric pickup there, despite the growing number of competitors, and that it posted record sales in the third quarter of this year.

And, as the WSJ notes, giving up on trucks torpedoes a strategy by Ford, GM and Stellantis to outdo Tesla and prepare buyers for an electric future: lean on their strengths in making full-size trucks and ensure even electric options are profitable.

Instead, Ford appears to be pinning its hopes on a smaller, cheaper electric pickup truck based on the "Universal Electric Vehicle Platform" that is said to have far fewer parts than the current Lightning, thanks to an all-new assembly process. Ford CEO Jim Farley touted the pickup and platform as the way to counter advanced Chinese automakers both in the U.S. and abroad. But this will only be released in 2027 at the earliest.

Ford Universal Electric Vehicle Platform

Photo de: Ford

So, should Ford and other companies continue spending money on products that are not yet economically viable, in the hope of winning the technological war with experience? Or should they scrap what they've done so far and come back in a few years with a new plan of attack?

For now, we don't know. Production of the F-150 Lightning remains idle due to restrictions on aluminum supply and the decision to prioritize combustion and hybrid pickup trucks. "We have good inventory of the F-150 Lightning and will bring the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center (REVC) back at the right time, but we do not have an exact date at this time," a spokesperson said in an email.