The Ford Motor Company has announced it will again be raising the price of the electric F-150 Lightning, noting raw material costs for manufacturing the pickup have continued to rise.

The F-150 Lightning Pro, intended for commercial and business customers seeking an entry-level vehicle, will see its price rise $4,000 to $55,974, an increase of almost 8% over the previous price and a whopping 40% increase over the initial $39,974 price announced in May of 2021.

In an emailed statement Friday, a Ford spokeswoman noted the company will adjust vehicle pricing, “as a normal course of business due to rising material costs, market factors, and ongoing supply chain constraints.”

Ford had garnered a lot of publicity when it announced its flagship electric pickup would start at $40,000, which at the time made it more affordable than many regular EV sedans on the market. Wall Street saw the truck as a sure winner, and an enormous boost for the company.

However as supply chain problems have driven up the prices of critical raw materials such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel, the price of the vehicle has gradually followed suit.

The company was undeterred by the latest pricing increase, which is the third so far this year. It had announced that it intended to expand production of the vehicle to 150,000 units by next fall, and just earlier this week it reaffirmed it remains on track to meet that target. The company recently added a third shift of workers to a Michigan plant assembling the trucks.

The spokeswoman had said, “Demand for this breakthrough vehicle is strong and continues to grow, we will continue to monitor pricing through the model year.”

Ford had sold 13,258 F-150 Lightnings by the end of November.