Finally gave in to reality this morning. I was holding out to see what things looked like, but it’s pretty clear by this point that Ford isn’t going to make their pricing more reasonable as long as demand is this high. I’m more than a bit disenchanted by the massive price spikes for 2023, especially considering that the competition isn’t doing similar. Looking at the MachE and issues they’ve been having, I’m not sure how confident I can be that the Lightning won’t have issues for the first couple of model years. I also think the charge curve is underwhelming for such a big battery, particularly in an environment when GM, Rivian, and Tesla will do better with their first trucks to market.

Across the auto industry, inventory levels are coming back and sale prices seem to be returning to reality. But I reserved the Lightning in 10/2021 and still haven’t gotten the opportunity to order, which means that demand is still exceeding what they can produce. They’d be nuts to cut price when they can’t satisfy demand, so the Lightning will cost more than it’s worth to me for the foreseeable.

 

You might be better off in the long run. Like you said, let them work the bugs out for the first couple of years. In the end you could end up with a more reliable vehicle for less then those that had to be the first to own one.

 

I'm almost to that point as well. It looked good when it came out at the initial price and so I put in my reservation. Now at the new and ever increasing price, and the likely reality that I won't even get to order it for at least another year, I'm not going to order one. I placed my reservation the day before they stopped taking reservations. I figure I'll cancel whenever I get an email that it's time to order it....so probably in 2024.

 

Welcome to my world. I cancelled after the first price hike. Not that I couldn't afford it, I just didn't want to be truck poor so to speak. My soon to be 10 y/o ice truck only has 26k miles so I can wait. Actually, just treated her to a new retractable tonneau cover since the old one was starting to show it's age.

 

Thanks, and I think that’s a good point. Ford isn’t executing as well as others are with their first EVs, but I think they’ll eventually get there. Maybe next time around.

That’s exactly the situation I figured that I was in. I kept telling myself that the deposit was always refundable, so I should wait. But I can’t imagine an eventuality where it would be worthwhile to go through with it.

The used car market is a good parallel to this. Last year, you could spend $16K on a ten-year-old Prius with 140K on the odometer. Could most people afford to buy it? Sure…but it’s a terrible decision because it’s not worth the price. I’ve been beating my face into the desk for the last few months trying to find ways for the Lightning to make sense after the price rises, but other OEM’s ‘23 EV pricing killed it for me. Ford is out on their own with their price rises, so the value is long gone in my view.

 

Y'all are too timid.... My neighbor just got the Rivian he ordered in 2018.....

 

Ha! I cancelled that one today as well.

I realized over the last few days that I don’t need something as elaborate as the Rivian or as big as the Lightning. Looking for a bit more room, better charging on the road, and the ability to pull my boat. Tesla is offering $3,750 off if you take delivery by the end of the year, so I’m going back to the Dark Side. I have a deal lined up and was supposed to pick up a Model Y tomorrow, but a title SNAFU with my Kia has me delayed until next week. My Model 3 was one of the best cars I ever owned, and the Y will address the few things that my EV6 won’t do.

 

No one will fault you for making a decision that suits your application. Also, can you be a bit more specific about the last bolded sentence?

 

It’s a few different things, and much of it is usability. My car comes with a battery heater, but it lacks the programming to use it when it’s most needed. Preconditioning is something most EVs do on the way to fast charging stations. The car heats the battery to >60º on your way to a charger to enable decent charging speeds. If my car were manufactured after July, it would have preconditioning logic, but my early-build doesn’t. So road trips in colder weather take a lot longer than they should because the car isn’t smart enough to warm the battery when needed. There’s talk that there may be an update coming for that, but we haven’t seen anything firm from Kia about it.

I’ve been very disappointed with the reliability of the CCS charging networks that I’ve seen so far. My trip to NH went fine for the most part over the summer, but several charging stations had inoperable stations that led to delays. I went to Madison to visit my brother over Thanksgiving, and the station in Tomah that worked great over the summer was only 50% online, and it didn’t charge as fast as it should. Hardly Kia’s fault, but the neighboring Tesla Supercharger was completely online. Right now, Tesla sets the world standard for charging network reliability. I’ve gotta believe the others will get there soon, but it’s a big advantage for Tesla at the moment.

The Model Y that I’m getting has the factory towing package, and it’s rated to pull my boat. It will lack the V2L capability, but I’ll gain a big frunk and substantially more cargo volume, as well as an additional ~50 miles of rated range. I’m not sure that it will get my boat to the lake and back on a single charge because of how much less efficient they are towing, but I’m sure that I won’t void any warranties by trying.

And lastly, Tesla’s mobile app is the best in the business. My ‘19 Model 3 could seamlessly enable remote climate control, seat heaters, and view live charging data in real-time. The Kia app has a version of those, but it’s laggy and extremely cumbersome to use. One of my big motivators for going back to an EV so soon was staying warm in the winter, and Tesla lets me do that a lot easier. I got rid of my Model 3 because of size and range. Both of those are much improved with the Y.

More than anything, my big reasons for considering the Lightning and Rivian were a bit more room and the ability to pull my boat. The Y will do those at a far cheaper cost than the Lightning or Rivian. Right now, Tesla is offering a discount that’s never been done before while Ford is jacking prices. So I might as well make the jump while the deal is there.

 

Tom, thank you for the well thought out and written response to me question regarding the switch from KIA to Tesla. I (and many others) haunt this sub-forum to learn and hopefully retain information and details for future use.

Hopefully the trade goes easy after the minor mix up is sorted out.

 

Thanks! The nice thing is that it gives me time to come to my senses.

All of my gripes are minor with the EV6, but were enough to push me over the edge with Tesla's offer. I don't think they've ever offered a discount before, and they're less likely to with the tax changes that come into effect next year. After two years with a Model 3, I miss many of the ways that car made life easier.

I'll be sticking around the Lightning forum, though. Despite my feelings on their pricing, I think Ford did a ton of things right with the first mass-market electric pickup on the market.

 

YES!!! I typically like to buy on the 3rd year of production.....all the "bugs" are either fixed or the entire world now knows about it!

 

I'm feeling this in my bones with the EV6.

Battery preconditioning is important whenever you're traveling in colder weather. Kia built the needed batteryheater into the car from the jump, but early-build models like mine don't have the programming to use it for preconditioning. The stupid heater works after you pluginto a fast charger. Which is great, but it kind of misses the point. Later-build cars have preconditioning software from the factory.

Same thing with the lack of trip planning. Lots of speculation that they may fix these with a service campaign later on, but there are no guarantees. The Lighting in particular has a big one that's going to be added by the end of next year, which is Google's Android Automotive operating system. It's replacing the slow and clunky Sync 4.1. I'm learning the hard way how much of a difference the infotainment screen makes on an EV because of in-dash trip planning. It's inconceivable that you could upgrade the current system to the new Android OS because it requires different hardware.

 

Hmm, I dunno bout that. Microsoft makes sync and a Win 11 pc can run android apps. The software uses the same hdwr as the operating system.

 

You’re talking apples and oranges. I first heard this on a long podcast interview that Jim Farley appeared on awhile back. It was also written up in the article that I mentioned above referencing that interview.

I had a 2014 Escape that was released two years before SYNC3. It was impossible to upgrade to SYNC3 without replacing the entire module. I had a 2017 Pacifica that was one year too early to get Apple CarPlay/Android Auto. Likewise, the entire system would need to be replaced to upgrade. People have done it to both, but these systems use bespoke hardware that’s tailored for the specific application. It’s like teaching your iPhone to run Windows.