I wonder if there is significant cost savings in Ford building batteries in the new factory that just started production. 

I was going to say the same thing. I wonder what has been cut? With tax credits gone, is keeping the price the same enough? I would have hoped for lower prices.

You are comparing apples to oranges. You need to compare the input cost of XL and XLT of the same model year.   Assuming the goal was to keep the MSRP the same as previous year, starting with XL instead of XLT is obviously a move to maintain or improve margin, whether there was new batteries or not. Also, battery costs is going down rapidly so adding the bigger pack likely didn't result in cost increase. In fact, it likely resulted in significant cost decrease.    Ford could have made the battery upgrade to the XLT if it wanted, but they didn't. XL has fewer standard equipment than XLT so it has cheaper bill of material costs for Ford. e.g. cheaper cloth seating, no power seats, no carpeted flooring, smaller screen, no dual zone climate control, no backup sensor, black plastic trim instead of more pricy chrome, cheaper speakers etc. The Lighting STX probably still has the LED lights so that's different than ICE STX.   There is also another simple thing to consider... eliminating the XLT reduces Lightning build option from 4 to 3 trim levels. The 2024 model has Pro (XL), XLT, Lariat, and Platinum. It's probably cheaper for Ford to add appearance package (STX) to Pro and limit the build variation to 3 trim levels than 4. It will also help with retail inventory management. 

Volkswagen targets dominance in Europe with affordable EV push   Volkswagen CEO Oliver Blume told CNBC on Monday that the car company is focused on improving its electromobility market dominance in Europe. It comes as the German auto giant unveils the ID. CROSS Concept car, which is set to go on the market in the first half of next year. Shares of Volkswagen are up around 12.2% so far this year.     The chief executive of Volkswagen says the German auto giant is pushing to strengthen its electromobility dominance in Europe with a new lineup of compact and affordable electric vehicles. Volkswagen, the largest supplier of electric cars in both Germany and Europe this year, unveiled the small all-electric ID. Cross Concept car over the weekend, before a roll-out into the market in the first half of next year.   This is Volkswagen’s fourth launch in a family of new electric models, following the ID.2 all, the ID. GTI Concept and the ID. EVERY1. “We have worked hard during the last years to improve our software, to improve our battery offerings. This family will be the first where we are introducing our unified cell concept in terms of battery,” Volkswagen CEO Oliver Blume told CNBC’s Annette Weisbach on Monday. “We will be competitive and right now, in Europe, for example, we are a market leader by far in electromobility with 28% market share. This family is another push to making this market share even bigger,” Blume said. Volkswagen’s ID. Cross Concept car will have an entry price level of around 25,000 euros ($29,316), Blume said.

Is this an example of the T3 battery being used in an upgraded Lightning? If so, Ford may be on the verge of striking gold with this version.

Except this is the Lightning, and this outright replaces XLT, and includes a bigger batter pack with more range and power for the same price as before.  Theoretically that'd make it more to build.

It's a margin boosting move. STX is XL with appearance package so should cost Ford less to build.     

But your also addressing a tiny market at least in the non fleet marketplace. 

Maverick is not that wide so it's fine for European roads. The length is more of a problem... it's longer than 5 meters which is generally the acceptable limit for practical everyday cars. Vehicles longer than 5 meters like Mercedes S-class and the like sometimes don't fit in tight underground parking garages - e.g. the standard wheelbase Transit Custom is 4972mm for a reason.    Ranger is also longer than 5 meters but pickup trucks is really not that common as a daily use vehicles in urban areas. 

Raptor is Ford’s version of AMG.