Ford has presented some ambitious EV plans this year. A huge part of those plans rests on the shoulders of one vehicle’s upcoming launch: the Ford F-150 Lighting EV. And the people are hyped, having already put in more than 160,000 reservations for the electric pickup. The dealers are hyped too, with a newer, better and more profitable opportunity. Get ready, the F-150 Lightning markups have already begun.
A post on the F-150 owner forum f150gen14.com details the markups of the Lightning at several dealers. The first was sent in an email to an unknown reservation holder who has their F-150 Lightning reserved at Rodman Ford in Foxborough, MA.
Good, Evening,
You are receiving this email because you reserved a Ford Lightning with Rodman Ford. Unfortunately, Rodman currently has over 200 reservations at this time and is only being allocated with 10% of the reservations. To guarantee your order for this upcoming spring there will be an adjusted markup on the vehicle of $5,000 from the MSRP. The first 10% of customers that respond to this email agreeing with the markup will be put as priority to purchase the Ford Lightning this spring. Ford is anticipating opening orders in January and having the vehicle roll out between April and June. The reservation order list will be finalized on Friday 12/17/2021, if you no longer have interest in the Lightning please let us know and we will remove you from the reservation list as well.
Thank you,
Lightning Support Staff
Rodman Ford
508-543-3333
Outside of the $5,000 markup, this email is troubling. If you read between the lines you can see what the dealer is really saying: they aren’t getting that many Lightnings from Ford. Because of that, even though you may already have a reservation, they have to charge you more.
What’s worse, the dealer is doing a first-come, first served approach on the markup to people who already have reservations. Some people appear to be taking this in and are ok with the rather light $5,000 markup.
“Credit to them being upfront and clear. $5k is not bad especially if you’re someone with the scratch for Lariat or higher. (I’m Pro or nothing) So they’re giving you the opportunity to look around with time to spare. And if they’re putting it down on paper, maybe not the worst offer you’ll see,” wrote one person. Others called the additional markup by the dealer plain foul.
Another dealer, Koons Ford Falls Church in Falls Church, VA is asking for $30,000 over sticker price. But wait. You could option for the extra $10,000 market adjustment. And then there’s the $5,000 deposit. And well, things just get complicated from there:
If you would like to be one of the first 25 orders there will be a $30,000 market adjustment. All other orders will have a $10,000 market adjustment to the MSRP. We will not be honoring any plan pricing at this time. The additional deposit required is $5,000 and will go towards the purchase of your vehicle. If you choose to cancel or not proceed with your order the deposit will be forfeited.
Here’s a look at what Ford sent out to dealers on how to deal with and allocate prioritization for their dealership’s Lightning reservations due by 11:59 p.m. tonight:
You may be wondering why there’s such a hard stance from the dealers as far as markups go. It may have something to do with dealer allocations. Ford is really rationing out Lightning allowances to dealers and giving them control over customer order priority. As one dealer said on the forums:
Dealers get to change the order of 25 reservations (if they have over 100 reservations). That includes taking people from out of their state and bumping them so they can help local customers. It is entirely up to them. Ford will take the order into account but their verbiage was somewhat vague.
Also, whoever wrote that customer communication does not understand the situation with production. Just because you get prioritized does not mean you will get a 2022. Ford is silent on 2022 production stating only that 2023 production will be around 80,000 units.
What does Ford have to say about all this? Ford’s Mike Levine thinks its a problem, which is a start.
Suffice to say, this is going to be a problem. With a $30 billion investment in EVs through 2025, this is a gamble Ford cannot afford to lose. Dealers pulling these kinds of moves, even in the face of limited allocations will turn customers away. And with how difficult it has been to get the people to adopt EVs already, this issue could potentially stall EV progress for Ford.
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