How much will the ford lightning cost

Ford says the new F-150 Lightning EV pickup is the smartest truck the company has ever made. It also happens to have the full weight of Ford's electric future riding on its battery-laden frame. Sure, the Mach-E was a nice place to start, but the electric F-150 is the true litmus test for Ford. Can Dearborn build an electric truck that's authentic to the brand's heritage, equally as capable as its gas counterparts, and appealing to hardcore truck fans? Having now driven the new truck, we can emphatically say "yes."

How Much for that Electric F-150?

A major piece of that puzzle is how much all this newness will cost, and for that we turn to Ford's official MSRP of two of the Lightning's trims. The cheapest F-150 Lightning you can buy is called the F-150 Lightning Pro, and you can read all about that model and its specifics here. Essentially, the Pro is a commercial model that starts at $41,769 that normal people can still buy—no need to be a fleet manager for this truck.

The consumer-oriented Lightning XLT will be priced from $54,769. Both of those numbers are before applicable state and federal incentives are applied, but with the required $1,695 destination charge included.

Ford will also offer Lariat and Platinum trim levels for the new Lightning, pricing those at $69,269 and $92,669, respectively. (All of those prices recently jumped by $100; the figures shown here include the increase.) While the base Pro comes only with the Standard Range battery (unless you're a fleet customer, in which case you can opt for the bigger pack), which Ford is estimating will deliver 230 miles or so of range, the XLT and Lariat offer the choice of that or an Extended Range battery that promises 320 miles of range. Opting for that battery won't be cheap; per Ford's configurator for the Lightning, the $10,000 big battery requires a $9,500 option package when selected on an XLT, bringing the total option price to $19,500. The top-dog Platinum comes only with the Extended Range pack, but thanks to its heft and 22-inch wheels and tires, sees its range knocked down to 320 miles.

How Do These Prices Compare to "Normal" F-150s?

We've already gone into detail about the specs of the new Lightning, and on paper it looks like Ford's electric truck rivals its internal combustion engine-powered siblings. But what about when it comes down to dollars and cents? Well, when specced similarly to the Lightning (in a crew cab configuration with a 5.5-foot-long bed and 4WD), the base F-150 XL starts at $44,865 and the XLT comes in at $50,035. That means a Pro is actually cheaper than its rival gas-fed F-150 (while having a ton more power), while the XLT is only slightly pricier.

For comparison outside of Ford's lineup, those prices put the Lightning within spitting distance of the base Chevy Silverado, which will run you $42,710 when specified the same way. As for the Ram 1500, a Tradesman (i.e. an absolute basement spec 1500) starts at $37,990. Oh, and Chevy's upcoming Silverado EV—due for the 2024 model year—is promised to start at just $39,900 in a similar work-truck guise.

In both the XL and XLT ICE-powered Fords, the base powertrain is a 3.3-liter V-6 with 290 horsepower and 265 lb-ft of torque. A number of powertrains are optional on the standard F-150, but some require different trim levels to be selected, and all of them add to the truck's base price. If you stick with the base powertrain, its horsepower and torque figures pale in comparison to what Ford says it's targeting with the Lightning: a monstrous 580 horsepower and 775 lb-ft of torque out of the Lightning's dual electric motors when equipped with the extended-range battery. With the standard batteries, horsepower drops to 452—still higher than any other F-150 you can buy.

Like the ICE trucks, a massive infotainment display (a portrait-oriented one instead of landscape, in this case), over-the-air updates, and a fully digitized instrument cluster can be had on the Lightning. Their interiors look mostly the same, too. Which means the Lightning should work and feel like a truck—which it will need to in order to succeed.

The higher-priced Lightning Lariat and Platinum models boast higher base prices than their gas-fed siblings, but peering closer at the equipment each one brings reveals that they're akin to fully loaded conventional equivalents. And, in case anyone needed reminding, even gas-fed full-size pickups can easily crack into the $70,000-$90,000 space, so the Lightning Lariat and Platinum pricing shouldn't be exactly shocking to anyone.

2022 Ford F-150 Lightning Pricing

• F-150 Lightning Pro: $41,769
• F-150 Lightning XLT: $54,769
• F-150 Lightning Lariat: $69,269
• F-150 Lightning Platinum: $92,669

This story was originally published May 20, 2021, and has since been updated to include the latest pricing information, trim level details, and more.