Ford hikes price of cheapest F-150 electric truck variant to nearly $56,000

(Reuters) – Ford Motor Co has raised the price of the cheapest variant of its F-150 Lightning electric truck by 9% to $55,974, the company’s website showed on Thursday.

The automaker has raised prices for its electric pickup trucks twice in a span of three months, as it navigates higher costs and supply chain snags.

Automakers across the globe, including Tesla Inc and Rivian Automotive Inc are also struggling with higher prices of raw materials such as lithium and have warned that high costs were here to stay.

Ford, which has previously said it was targeting annual production of 150,000 Lightning pickups by the fall of 2023, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for a comment on the price hike.

The company’s shares were down about 3.5% in afternoon trade amid declines in the broader market.

It was, however, not immediately clear when the price hike occurred.

The move comes on the heels of the automaker adding a third work crew at an assembly plant near Detroit as it boosts production of its F-150 trucks.

(Reporting by Nathan Gomes in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)