The 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning recently entered the second phase of production at the Ford Rouge Electric Vehicle Center as the all-electric Ford F-150 gets closer to its launch in the spring of 2022. Ford stopped taking reservations for the F-150 Lightning just this week as it neared the 200,000 mark, while order banks are scheduled to open next month. Ford has been surprised by the level of interest consumers have shown in the electric pickup so far, which is what prompted the automaker to double the truck’s planned production recently. Now, it appears that Ford is planning to ramp up F-150 Lightning production sooner than expected as well.
According to a memo seen by Automotive News, FoMoCo is reportedly planning on producing 80,000 F-150 Lightning pickups per year by January 2023, with the capacity to produce 88,000 annually. This accelerates the automaker’s previous plan to reach the 80,000-per-year mark by 2024. Regardless, depending on how many Lightning reservation holders convert them to orders, it’s possible that not all customers will receive a 2022 model.
As Ford Authority reported yesterday, Ford CEO Jim Farley believes that most Lightning reservation holders – 80 percent, to be exact – will convert them to orders. That’s significantly more than the 66 percent of 2021 Ford Bronco reservation holders that ultimately placed an order for a new SUV, but Farley points to rising prices in the new vehicle market, coupled with the low MSRP of the 2022 Ford F-150 Lighting as the catalyst behind what he expects to be a robust conversion rate.
Originally, Ford believed that it would sell around 20,000 Lightnings per year, but strong pre-launch interest in the pickup prompted the automaker to invest an additional $850 million to double its planned production, which was previously slated to reach the 160,000 unit-per-year mark by 2025.
We’ll have more on the F-150 Lightning soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for the latest Ford F-Series news, Ford F-150 news, F-150 Lightning news, and around-the-clock Ford news coverage.
No Comments yet