The recent price reduction applied by Ford on its all-electric F-150 Lightning pickup raised many comments, including one from Tesla's CEO Elon Musk.
Elon Musk noted that the Ford F-150 Lightning is a "good vehicle," but "somewhat expensive." As we understand, in Musk's opinion, it's still too expensive, even after the $6,000-$10,000 price reductions (depending on the trim level).
Tesla's boss wrote also that price matters a lot when interest rates are high:
"The Ford Lightning is a good vehicle, just somewhat expensive, especially given the high interest rates these days for any kind of loan"
Well, that's interesting input, especially since there are two heavyweight contenders just around the corner. The Tesla Cybertruck recently entered production (the first unit marks the ramp-up start), while General Motors is working on its Ultium-based Chevrolet Silverado EV.
If Elon Musk considers the Ford F-150 Lightning expensive (starting at an MSRP of $49,995 and going up to $91,995 for the Platinum version, before DST), then, as we understand, we should expect noticeably lower prices for the Tesla Cybertruck.
How about a $35,000-$40,000 Tesla Cybertruck entry-level version then? Is this possible? We don't know the Tesla Cybertruck specs, details, or pricing.
A big part of the future competition in the all-electric pickup segment will be volume. Without volume, it will be probably difficult to compete.
Ford is getting ready to achieve an annual production run rate of 150,000 units (12,500 per month) before the end of this year. It would be a very high result compared to just 8,757 units sold in the first half of 2023.
Meanwhile, Tesla is very likely targeting at least a six-digit volume (100,000+), especially if one believes in the story of hundreds of thousands of reservations (1.6 million units, according to one of the reports from November 2022).
