Why are EVs just getting more and more expensive?
For years we’ve been following the slow rollout of the “electric future” of the auto industry. If you’ve been consuming a steady diet of US corporate media, you might be under the impression that EVs constitute a sizable portion of the auto market these days, but it’s still well under 10 percent. Part of the reason for that is these all-electric models are expensive and they’re getting pricier every few months lately.
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A wonderful example is the all-electric Ford F-150 Lightning. The automaker just announced yet another price hike of $5,000 for the 2023 Lightning Pro. That means MSRP is $51,974. What’s interesting about this move is Ford decided to hike the price on its cheapest trim for the all-electric pickup truck, one which many business fleets prefer.
The good news is anyone who’s already ordered their Ford F-150 Lightning Pro, or fleet buyers with a scheduled order, doesn’t have to pay the increased price. According to a report from The Detroit News, Ford is blaming “ongoing supply chain constraints, rising material costs and other market factors” for this move.
While the other trim levels of the Lightning don’t get the same price hike, we might soon see another across-the-lineup increase like we did right as federal tax incentives were approved by Congress in August. Conveniently, that jump in MSRP for the whole lineup was about the same amount as the tax incentive shoppers can claim. If one were cynical, they’d think Ford was just using the incentives to fleece taxpayers.
It seems like electric vehicles aren’t the screaming deal we were told they were as recently as a few months ago. Not only are prices on the rise for many models, including Tesla constantly hiking MSRPs, electricity rates in many areas are skyrocketing upward despite the heavy media spin in the past that gas was the only fuel which ever did that. It will be interesting to see how these price increases combined with lending rates increasing affects EV sales moving forward.
Source: The Detroit News
