Ford hikes F-150 Lightning’s price again to battle high costs, article with gallery

March 30 (Reuters) – Ford Motor Co (F.N) has raised the base price of its popular F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck again, the automaker’s website showed on Thursday, the latest in a series of price hikes aimed at offsetting high costs.

Shares of Ford were up 2% in afternoon trade.

The base variant of Ford’s electric F-150 truck now starts at $59,974, excluding shipping and taxes, up nearly 50% from its starting price when launched last year.

The Detroit automaker resumed production of the F-150 Lightning earlier this month after recalling 18 electric trucks due to a battery-cell manufacturing defect.

Ford’s hike comes after EV maker Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) ignited a price war this year by aggressively trimming prices.

A week earlier, Ford said its electric-vehicle business unit was expected to lose $3 billion this year, but remained on track to achieve a pretax margin of 8% by late 2026.

The company was not immediately available for further comment on the price increase, which was first reported by Automotive News on Thursday.

Reporting by Kannaki Deka and Nathan Gomes in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath

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