Ford says its planning to double production of its upcoming electric pickup truck, the F-150 Lightning, to 150,000 vehicles per year by 2023. The news comes as the automaker prepares to start making and shipping its new EV in the first half of 2022.
Production of both the F-150 Lightning and F-150 Lightning Pro for commercial customers has entered its final pre-build stage this week at the company’s Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, Michigan. Deliveries of the first trucks are expected to start in the spring.
The number of electric F-150s Ford planned on making in its first few years of production has been a bit of a shifting target. At first, the company was only targeting 40,000 vehicles annually, eventually telling suppliers it expected that capacity to rise to 80,000 by early 2023, according to Automotive News. Now, that number has risen dramatically to 150,000 trucks by mid-2023, a spokesperson said. (As to how many it will make in its first year of production, the spokesperson said more details would be shared later.)
Ford also recently announced that it was tripling production for the Mustang Mach-E, with the expectation that it will reach over 200,000 units per year by 2023. Ford’s electric delivery van, the E-Transit, also goes on sale early this year.
Ford also announced that starting January 6th, the first reservation holders will be able to start selecting the options and trim levels for their trucks. The company is using a “wave-by-wave reservation process” to inform customers when they can go online to spec out their Lightnings. Ford recently stopped taking reservations after having collected 200,000 refundable $100 deposits for the Lightning since it debuted in May 2020.
The F-150 Lightning starts at $39,974 but can more than double in price depending on which version people buy. Some Ford dealers are reportedly taking advantage of strong demand for the Lightning by marking up the price by as much as $30,000.
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That base model is supposed to offer around 230 miles of range and has a more bare-bones interior, including a 12-inch landscape touchscreen display. Higher trims will come with the same 15.5-inch vertical touchscreen from the Mustang Mach-E, and there’s an extended range battery option that can push the range to around 300 miles. Towing capacity ranges between 7,700 and 10,000 pounds, depending on the configuration.
As long as they start shipping on time, Ford will join Rivian and GMC as the only automakers with an electric pickup truck on the market. (Rivian started shipping its R1T pickup in October, while the first Hummer EVs reached customers at the end of the year.) Tesla’s long-promised Cybertruck has been pushed to next year, and CEO Elon Musk has said his company won’t start making them in large volumes until 2023.
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