Ford F-150 Lightning production increased again to meet ‘soaring’ demand

January 5, 2022January 5, 2022 Toby Hagon 2544 Views ford

Ford has again ramped up planned production volumes for its upcoming F-150 Lightning all-electric pickup truck “to meet soaring customer demand”.

The company has confirmed it is almost doubling production at the Rouge Center in Detroit of the all-electric large ute to 150,000 vehicles annually – about one-fifth of the total production of the top-selling pickup truck.

It is the second time production of the F-150 Lightning has been increased since the production model was revealed in May 2021.

Initially Ford had only planned to produce 40,000 of the EV versions of the F-150 each year. So the company has almost quadrupled its initial planned production run in less than a year.

The announcement comes after Ford said it would boost production of the Mustang Mach E – a car expected to come to Australia in 2022 or 2023 – to 200,000 units annually by 2023.

Ford says it will have the capacity to make 600,000 EVs annually by the start of 2024; to put that in perspective, the world’s largest EV manufacturer, Tesla, in 2021 produced 930,422 vehicles.

Ford F-150 Lightning production at the Rouge Center in Detroit — Ford F-150 Lightning all-electric ute production at the Rouge Center in Detroit

Demand for the F-150 Lightning has clearly caught the traditional car maker off guard, with many buyers prepared to accept an EV ute if it does what customers expect.

Priced US$39,974 ($55,000), the Lighting has a regular EV range of aboyut 370km while an extended range battery increases that to 480km.

Each Lightning has a dual motor setup for all-wheel drive capability.

Acceleration to 60mph (96km/h) will be achievable in around 4.5 seconds, making the EV version of the F-150 faster than any of the ICE-powered versions.

The F-150 Lightning can also provide up to 9.6kW of electricity, allowing the truck to power a home, campsite or tools on a worksite – or even charge another EV.

Even more significant for the booming F-150 Lightning demand is that electricity is proving popular in a country where big capacity engines – often V8s – have dominated in big pickup trucks.

“With nearly 200,000 reservations, our teams are working hard and creatively to break production constraints to get more F-150 Lightning trucks into the hands of our customers,” said Kumar Galhotra, Ford president of The Americas & International Markets Group.

“The reality is clear: People are ready for an all-electric F-150 and Ford is pulling out all the stops to scale our operations and increase production capacity.”

One of more than a dozen electric utes currently promised or under development – including from rivals Hummer, Chevrolet and Ram – the F-150 Lightning will be the second to hit the market when cars begin customer deliveries around March or April. The first electric ute to be delivered was from EV startup Rivian, which has amassed a cult following during development.

Ford is no doubt trying to capitalise on early EV demand for large utes while Tesla is still struggling to get its delayed Cybertruck competitor to market. The Cybertruck claims to have more than one million customer deposits against it but Tesla has still not shown the production version, which is expected in 2023 at the earliest.

As Tesla has shown, leading a segment early can pay off in the long run.

Ford is also defending its dominant position with the F-150, which has led the US truck market for 45 years.

The F-Series accounts for about 750,000 sales annually for Ford.

Ford is also planning an EV version of its Ranger. An all-new version of the Ranger will go on sale in Australia in 2022.