Used 2023 Ford F-150 Lightning vs New 2026 Chevy Silverado EV: Which Electric Pickup Costs Less Over 5 Years?

Here's a scenario a lot of truck shoppers are staring at right now: Ford has stopped building the F-150 Lightning, and Electrek recently pointed out that this leaves the Chevy Silverado EV as the most affordable full-size electric pickup you can currently buy new. If you want a new electric half-ton, Chevy is basically the only game in town.

But "most affordable new option" and "cheapest to own" are two very different claims. A used Lightning didn't disappear from the market — it just stopped being manufactured. Dealers and private sellers still have them, and a discontinued model often gets priced to move. So the real question isn't "which new EV truck costs less to buy," it's "which truck — used and discontinued, or new and currently-in-production — costs less to own over the next five years?"

That's a math problem with a lot of moving parts: purchase price, depreciation curve, loan APR, insurance in your zip code, how many miles you drive, and whether you tow. Let's build the calculation so you can see exactly where the money goes, then talk about the variables that could flip the answer for your specific situation.

The Setup: Two Trucks, Two Very Different Cost Profiles

For this example, we'll compare:

• Used 2023 Ford F-150 Lightning XLT (Standard Range), roughly 32,000 miles, purchase price $34,500
• New 2026 Chevy Silverado EV LT (Extended Range), purchase price $58,000 with destination

These are realistic listing-level numbers for illustration, not a quote for your exact truck — your actual prices will depend on trim, region, and inventory. That's the whole point of running your own numbers before you sign anything.

Both trucks are financed with a 15% down payment and a 60-month loan, because that's how most people actually buy trucks. Here's where it gets complicated fast — and where "I'll just estimate it" starts to fall apart.

The 5-Year TCO Breakdown

Cost Category	Used 2023 Lightning XLT	New 2026 Silverado EV LT
Purchase price	$34,500	$58,000
Down payment (15%)	$5,175	$8,700
Amount financed	$29,325	$49,300
Loan APR (used vs. new rates)	7.5%	6.5%
5-yr financing interest	$5,966	$8,710
Est. value after 5 yrs	~$15,525 (45% retained)	~$23,200 (40% retained)
5-yr depreciation	$18,975	$34,800
Insurance (5 yrs, est.)	$10,500	$12,000
Electricity, 12k mi/yr (5 yrs)	$4,800	$4,363
Maintenance (5 yrs)	$3,000	$2,500
Home charger install	$0 (assumes already installed)	$1,200
Total 5-Year TCO	≈ $43,266	≈ $63,573

Add it up and the used Lightning comes out roughly $20,300 cheaper to own over five years than the new Silverado EV in this scenario — even though the Lightning is the "obsolete," discontinued option and the Silverado EV is the shiny, currently-in-production truck getting the headlines.

Why? Two things are doing most of the work: depreciation and financing interest. The used Lightning already absorbed the brutal first-few-years depreciation hit that hits every new vehicle (and EVs especially — we go deep on this in The EV Depreciation Paradox). The new Silverado EV, by contrast, is still standing at the top of its depreciation curve, and it's financing a much larger loan balance at the start.

This is exactly the kind of multi-variable comparison DriveDecision runs for you — so you don't have to build a five-line spreadsheet with a loan amortization formula buried in it just to compare two trucks.

The Verdict (For This Example)

In this specific scenario, the used 2023 Ford F-150 Lightning wins on total cost of ownership — by a wide margin. A discontinued vehicle isn't automatically a depreciation trap; sometimes it means the previous owner already ate the expensive part of the curve, and you're buying in at the flatter, cheaper section.

That said — and this is important — "discontinued" cuts both ways, and the direction it cuts depends on parts support and battery service, not just price. We cover exactly this dynamic in Used 2023 Ford F-150 Lightning vs New 2026 F-150 XLT: What Ford's 100,000-Unit Fathom Bet Does to Your Trade-In Value, and the collapse of federal EV incentives adds another wrinkle explored in 2026 F-150 Lightning vs F-150 XLT: What the $7,500 EV Tax Credit Collapse Does to Your 5-Year Cost. If you're shopping a used Lightning specifically, it's also worth understanding what a battery replacement outside warranty could cost — we ran those numbers in Ford F-150 Lightning Battery Replacement Cost: What 234,000 Miles Really Costs You.

The Variables That Flip This Answer

Here's where "but YOUR numbers depend on YOUR inputs" stops being a disclaimer and starts being the actual point.

Your APR isn't the example APR. Used-vehicle loans commonly run 2-4 points higher than new-vehicle loans, but if you've got excellent credit and your credit union is running a promotional rate, that gap could shrink to nothing — or even reverse if the automaker is subsidizing new-vehicle financing to move Silverado EV inventory. Change the APR on either side by two points and the interest line shifts by well over a thousand dollars across 60 months.

Your insurance quote isn't the example quote. A 2023 Lightning and a 2026 Silverado EV will price very differently depending on your zip code, your driving record, and whether your insurer has actuarial data on EV truck repair costs yet (many still don't, which is part of why quotes vary so wildly right now). A $200/year swing in either direction moves the five-year total by $1,000.

Towing changes your "fuel" line dramatically. The Drive recently featured a demonstration of a 16,000-pound Diamond C trailer staying remarkably stable under panic braking thanks to its trailer-side ABS — a good reminder that half-ton EV trucks are increasingly being paired with genuinely heavy loads. If you tow regularly, real-world range on either truck can drop 40-50%, which roughly doubles the effective electricity cost per mile used in the table above. A truck that looks like the cheaper EV to run empty can lose that advantage fast once you're pulling a boat every weekend.

Your mileage isn't 12,000/year. If you're doing 18,000 miles annually, the electricity line grows by 50% on both trucks, but it also front-loads wear-and-tear maintenance and pushes both vehicles toward a lower resale percentage at trade-in time.

This is precisely the kind of decision where you should model this for your specific situation at DriveDecision rather than eyeballing it — the interaction between financing rate, insurance tier, and driving pattern isn't something you can reliably do in your head, and a $500 assumption error in any one line item compounds over 60 months of payments.

The Discontinuation Pattern Is Bigger Than Trucks

The Lightning-versus-Silverado-EV dynamic — where a nameplate's end of production changes the value equation for people who already own or are shopping for one — isn't unique to pickups. Carscoops recently reported that Audi is killing the RSQ3 in favor of an all-new SQ3, which raises the same question for anyone eyeing a used RSQ3 right now: does a used performance model lose value faster once its replacement is confirmed, or does scarcity work the other way? We explored a similar low-volume discontinuation scenario in Hyundai Ioniq 6 N vs Lexus UX 300e: When a Low-Volume EV Gets Discontinued, What Happens to Your 5-Year Cost? — the short version is that it depends heavily on parts support, warranty transferability, and whether the replacement model is a genuine upgrade or a lateral move.

When the New Truck Actually Wins

The used Lightning wins in our worked example, but that's not universal. A few scenarios flip it:

• You want the full manufacturer warranty and the newest battery chemistry. Peace of mind has a price, and if unexpected repair risk keeps you up at night, that's a legitimate reason to pay the depreciation premium on a new truck — the same "is this actually worth the extra cost" question The Drive is currently testing with their long-term 2026 Honda Prelude, a car whose value proposition enthusiasts are still arguing about in real time.
• You can get in-house EV incentives or dealer cash on the Silverado EV that meaningfully cut the effective purchase price — this happens more often than list price suggests, especially as Chevy pushes volume now that it's the only affordable full-size EV truck left standing.
• You already have a home charger and low insurance costs, which narrows two of the biggest gaps in the table above.
• Software and infotainment matter to you. With iOS 27's CarPlay update adding better navigation widgets and audio handling (a genuine quality-of-life upgrade The Drive highlighted after using it), it's worth noting this doesn't actually favor the new truck — CarPlay improvements arrive through your phone, not the vehicle, so a 2023 Lightning gets the same benefit as a 2026 Silverado EV the moment you plug in.

Run Your Own Numbers

The math above is a worked example, not a verdict for your driveway. Your purchase price, your APR, your zip code's insurance rates, your annual mileage, and your towing habits will all move these numbers — sometimes by a little, sometimes by enough to completely reverse the winner. Before you sign a loan on either truck, run your specific numbers through DriveDecision and see which one actually wins for you, not for the example buyer in this article.

Sources

• The Chevy Silverado EV is now America’s most affordable full-size electric pickup — Electrek
• iOS 27 CarPlay’s Best New Features, According to Someone Who Used Them — The Drive
• 2026 Honda Prelude Long-Term Test Begins: Living With Honda’s Most Controversial Car — The Drive
• Audi’s RSQ3 Is Dead, But A New Kind Of Speedy Q3 Is Coming — Carscoops
• You’ve Never Seen a 16,000-Pound Trailer Stay This Stable in a Panic Brake — The Drive