Ford’s own numbers show its electric vehicle business falling off a cliff. According to the automaker’s official U.S. sales release, Ford sold just 2,197 EVs in August 2026, a 79.4% collapse from 10,671 units in August 2025, while the F-150 Lightning alone dropped 95.4%, from 3,217 units down to 148.

Total Ford sales for the month landed at 170,681 vehicles, down 10.3% year over year from 190,206 in August 2025, per the same release. But the EV line is where the damage concentrates. Year-to-date, F-150 Lightning sales sit at 4,770 units versus 19,077 over the same stretch in 2025 — a 75% decline for the year that suggests August wasn’t a fluke or a one-month inventory hiccup, but a continuation of a trend that’s been building for months.

Ford’s hybrid lineup, which the company has leaned on as its bridge strategy between gas and full electric, also slipped. Hybrid sales totaled 15,040 units in August, down 19.9% from 18,773 a year earlier, according to Ford’s release. That’s a smaller drop than the EV side by a wide margin, but it still marks a step back for the powertrain Ford has repeatedly pointed to as evidence that electrification demand hasn’t disappeared, just shifted away from pure battery-electric models.

What’s Driving the Drop

The timing lines up with the end of the federal EV tax credit. The $7,500 federal EV purchase incentive that had been propping up demand for models like the Lightning expired for new purchases, and dealers and analysts have pointed to that expiration as the single biggest driver behind the swing from double-digit EV sales gains to double-digit losses within the same calendar year. Ford Authority’s breakdown of the release notes the Lightning’s decline as the steepest of any nameplate in Ford’s lineup this month, electric or otherwise.

• Total Ford U.S. sales: 170,681, down 10.3% year over year
• Total EV sales: 2,197, down 79.4% year over year
• F-150 Lightning: 148 units, down 95.4% year over year
• Hybrid sales: 15,040 units, down 19.9% year over year
• F-150 Lightning YTD: 4,770 units versus 19,077 through August 2025, down 75%

None of this means Ford is abandoning electrification. It means the easy customers — the early adopters and tax-credit chasers — have already bought in, and what’s left is a smaller pool of buyers who need to be convinced on the truck’s own merits: payload, charging time, and price relative to a gas-powered F-150. Those are harder sales to close, and August’s numbers are the clearest evidence yet of how much of Ford’s EV volume was riding on a subsidy that no longer exists.