Ford recently announced the release of their upcoming all-electric pickup truck, the F-150 Lightning. Below is a side-by-side comparison of two all-electric pick-up trucks: Ford's F-150 Lightning and Tesla's Cybertruck.

Ford F-150 Lightning vs. Tesla Cybertruck Comparison Chart
Ford F-150 Lightning vs. Tesla Cybertruck Comparison Chart

Additional Comparison Points

Here are some additional comparison points that we excluded from the graphic:

Federal tax credits

The IRS gives a $7,500 tax credit for EVs/plug-in hybrids that slowly phases out once a car company has sold 200,000 EVs/plug-in hybrids.

F-150 Lightning

The key point is that by the F-150 Lightning's release date in mid-2022, very few Ford cars may still be eligible for the tax credit.

As of May 2021, Ford has sold about 137,000 EVs/plug-in hybrids that were eligible for tax credits.* That leaves about 63,000 Ford EVs/plug-in hybrids eligible for the tax credit. However, this tax credit must cover many Ford cars through 2021 and early 2022: the existing Ford Mustang Mach-E, the Ford Escape Plug-in Hybrid, and the Ford Fusion Plug-in Hybrid.

Based on current sales numbers for the Mach-E in Q1 2021 and April 2021, by the time of the Ford F-150 Lightning's release in mid-2022, Ford may only have between 40,000 and 25,000 EVs/hybrids still eligible for tax credits.

The problem for Ford is that good Mach-E sales in 2021 and early-2022 will eat away at the number of tax credits available for the F-150 Lightning in mid-2022.

*footnote: Official IRS data had Ford totaling 126,641 eligible cars at the end of 2020. Ford released sales numbers for the Mustang Mach-E for Q1 2021 and April 2021, totaling 8,565. Ford has not released the official number of sales for their plug-in hybrids, but we could assume about 1,500 through April 2021 based on past numbers.

Cybertruck
  • None (Tesla has already reached 200,000 EVs sold, so no longer eligible for federal tax credits)

Onboard Power

F-150 Lightning
  • Four 120V outlets in the frunk, 2 USB ports; two outlets in the bed and two in the cabin
  • Pro model: 2.4kw of total exportable power (or 9.6kW exportable power with the Extended-Ranged Battery)
  • XLT, LARIAT, PLATINUM models: 9.6kW of total exportable power
Cybertruck
  • Unknown how many outlets, but will certainly have onboard power options.

Vehicle-to-building (backup power)

F-150 Lightning
  • Bi-directional vehicle-to-building (V2B) charging available with Ford Charge Station Pro. Allows the vehicle to act as a backup power source for the house during a power outage. This will be appealing to many potential buyers of the Ford F-150 Lightning.
(Source: Ford)
Cybertruck
  • None (as of now)

Number of Pre-orders in First Two Days

F-150 Lightning
Cybertruck