A used Ford F-150 Lightning now sells in about 20 days, against a 44-day average for used vehicles in the US, and dealers say they are going for roughly 50% to 60% of their original sticker price. The truck has been out of production since December 2025, so the electric pickup that struggled to find buyers new has become one of the quicker-moving vehicles on secondhand lots.
The price figures come from the trade. Jimmy Douglas, chief executive of the wholesale EV dealer Plug, gave the 50% to 60% range, and he says close to a third of used Lightnings are now bought by rival dealerships that would otherwise send them back to Ford. Market pricing data puts the typical used Lightning at about $50,000, up roughly 4% since January.
Why the supply is fixed
Ford built the Lightning at its Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, Michigan, from April 2022 until it stopped production in December 2025. In announcing a broad shift toward hybrids and extended-range models, chief executive Jim Farley said: “This is a customer-driven shift to create a stronger, more resilient and more profitable Ford.” The company booked about $19.5 billion in special items tied to that change.
Add up Ford’s US sales of the truck, 15,617 in 2022, 24,165 in 2023, 33,510 in 2024 and 27,307 in 2025, and the whole American pool of first-generation Lightnings comes to about 100,600 trucks. No new ones are being added. A next-generation Lightning is planned as an extended-range model that keeps fully electric drive, with Ford estimating more than 700 miles of range. Its smaller all-electric pickup, the Fathom, is due in 2027 at a starting price Ford has put at $28,350.
The arithmetic: what “50% off” means
The headline discount depends on which sticker you measure against. Here is the working, using published figures only.
- Against a top trim. The 2026 Platinum listed at $84,995. Half of that is $42,498; 60% is $50,997. The used prices quoted by dealers sit inside that band.
- Against the cheapest late-model trim. The 2026 STX listed at $63,345. A $50,000 used truck is $13,345 below that, a discount of 21% ($13,345 divided by $63,345).
- By model year. Used-listing averages put prices at $57,359 for a 2025, $51,021 for a 2024, $45,175 for a 2023 and $42,100 for a 2022. A 2023 at $45,175 is $18,170, or about 29%, below the 2026 STX sticker.
- Against the original promise. Ford announced the work-focused Lightning Pro in May 2021 at $39,974. The average 2022 truck now sells for $42,100, which is $2,126 more than that launch figure, although the used average mixes all trims.
So “half price” is accurate for loaded trucks measured against their original window sticker, and generous for the base trims. Transaction data shows how far those stickers climbed: the average first-year transaction price was about $79,000, roughly $19,000 more than a gasoline F-150.
No federal credit either way
Federal tax policy has dropped out of the comparison. The Internal Revenue Service says neither the new nor the previously-owned clean vehicle credit is available for vehicles acquired after September 30, 2025. Even when the used credit existed, it paid 30% of the price up to $4,000 and applied only to vehicles selling for $25,000 or less. On the model-year averages above, the least expensive model year still sells for $17,100 above that cap ($42,100 minus $25,000), so a typical used Lightning would not have qualified anyway.
What the numbers do not show
Range differs widely by battery. The EPA rated the standard pack at 240 miles and the extended pack at 320 miles, and a used listing that does not state which battery it carries leaves out the biggest difference between two otherwise similar trucks. Some buyers are clearly treating the Lightning as a second vehicle: Alex Lawrence of EV Group says he struggles to find well-priced trucks for that market.
The next test of whether Americans want electric pickups at a lower price arrives with the Fathom in 2027.
Further reading
Image: Alexander-93, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by our Editorial Desk. How we work.
