I admire the hell out of his approach. He could stand there pounding his chest saying Ford is perfect, and none of their rivals can come close to them. But that mentality would only lead to Ford falling further behind.    Actually giving credit to your competition, and openly stating where your company needs to improve, how you can better your products and the way you develop them, that's how you win. We're so used to seeing these leaders lie, or hide stuff from us, Farley doing the opposite is a strength, not a weakness. 

By the way, in most export markets the BYD Seagull starts higher than $15K USD. An average starting price for the Seagull in South America is $20,000. In Europe the average starting price for the Seagull (where it's been renamed Dolphin Surf) is $26,000. In the Philippines the Seagull starts at under $16,000 because of the excise tax exemption for BEVs. BYD Seagull is roughly the size of a Mitsubishi Mirage hatchback, it's just a bit shorter in length and a tad wider and taller. PS: PHEV & eREV models of BYD are also responsible for the rapid growth of the Chinese brand.

Since Lightning is Ford’s only battery electric pickup, I assume the 2/3 reference may apply to it more than others, but we are guessing no matter what until Ford share information.  And if they offer a lower-cost bare-bones trim meant mostly to hit a certain price point for marketing purposes, I think 2/3 of Lightning would still be around 65 kWh IIRC, which isn’t that far off from a possible 50 kWh.   In one interview Farley stated that not everyone needs more than 300 miles of range, which makes me think that may be the upper limit or goal on range.  It would not surprise me at all if they go with two battery sizes, with smaller in 50~65 kWh capacity range and larger in 75~90 kWh range.    

It did in 2023 when we bought ours.  I think originally the Mach-E had the full $7500 credit, but it was cut in half to $3750 at some point.

I believe the leasing company gets the rebate and can pass it onto the customer....not sure how that works or how much they actually get.   

It's confusing, Ford's alluded to a battery that's 2/3rds the size of their current EVs, or rival products. But we don't know if they're referring to something like a mach-e with its bigger or smaller battery pack. I want to say the mach-e with a larger battery it's around 90 KWH.   So this truck would be about 60, which is far more believable than 50 imo. Especially if this truck had "Incredible range, and can power your house for 6 days" which is what Farley is claiming. 

I think it was a combo of bad mix of Silverado at dealers/production issues, and more recently they tried dropping the Hemi V8 and it's gone bad sales wise.

Good point, but was there not a lease workaround?  Not sure since I’ve never looked into leasing details.  In any case would seem strange for over 100% volume increase without some kind of incentive.

I don't recall where the link was - I'm pretty sure it was posted here somewhere, but i remember reading that Chinese dealers are actually waaaay overproducing and giving vehicles away for like half off.   This isn't the article, but it talks about some of it.   https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/26/cars/chinese-electric-cars-price-wars-intl-hnk-dst   Also, the measures aren't against the car nobody wants, it's for the other models.

That’s definitely part of the issue but not the entire story in my opinion.  At top of story tbone linked in his post, there’s a picture of a BYD Seagull which seems appropriate for the subject matter.  The Seagull is apparently very popular in many world markets, probably because it’s basic transportation at an affordable price.  In other words it provides good value to budget minded buyers.  Setting aside tariffs and other restrictions for a second, why do US manufacturers not build a “Seagull” equivalent for North America?  The answer is always the same, that there’s no demand, right?  But if that’s the case, why worry about a Chinese vehicle that won’t sell anyway?     Chinese government subsidies are part of issue, but I also believe Chinese auto manufacturers are willing to compete with vehicles that American manufacturers don’t want to have to build.  Reasonable tariffs can compensate for price disparity but do US manufacturers want Seagull-type vehicles sold well under $20k?  Maybe US manufacturers want to only sell more expensive vehicles with higher profit margins and don’t want Chinese to compete in N.A. at all regardless of properly-adjusted prices.   I agree government subsidies play a role but don’t see how that alone explains as an example how a Fiat 500e should cost twice as much as a BYD Seagull of roughly similar size and capabilities (I’m assuming after hefty tariff on Seagull).  Granted Fiat may be a better car but buyers should have option to choose how much “better” they want to pay for.  Just a different perspective on why we fear Chinese competition.