In fight vs GM, Ford doubles production of its F-150 Lightning electric pickup

Ford Motor Company on Tuesday announced that it will nearly double the annual production capacity of its F-150 Lightning electric pickup to 150,000 units. The move comes a day after rival General Motors introduced its Chevrolet Silverado electric pickup, which is slated to go on sale in early 2023.

Ford originally had a production capacity for 70,000-80,000 F-150 Lightning pickups. “We're pulling out all the stops and planning to nearly double production of our first all-electric version of America’s best-selling vehicle, the legendary union-built F-Series," the carmaker wrote in its Twitter post.

The union-built Ford F-150 Lightning pickup has already garnered nearly 200,000 reservations ahead of its arrival at the dealerships this spring. More than 75 per cent of reservation holders are new to the brand. Last month, Ford CEO Jim Farley told CNBC host Jim Cramer that the company had to stop taking reservations for the 2022 Lightning because it had already garnered a large number of reservations.

We're pulling out all the stops and planning to nearly double production of our first all-electric version of America’s best-selling vehicle, the legendary union-built F-Series, with @UAW members leading the way at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center. #F150Lightning pic.twitter.com/QqvQ1Jrg39

— Ford Motor Company (@Ford) January 4, 2022

In the interview, Farley had also hinted at doubling the production capacity for the model over the next two years at the company's Rouge factory near its Dearborn, Michigan headquarters.

Ford is also looking at tripling its annual production capacity for the popular Mustang Mach-E electric crossover model to more than 200,000 units by 2023 in order to meet the ‘better-than-anticipated’ demand. Further, the automaker informed that it will have the annual capacity to build 600,000 units of electric vehicles globally within 24 months, and that is when it aims to become ‘the No. 2 electric vehicle maker in North America’, behind Tesla.

The carmaker plans to build its future electric vehicles in places include the United States, Canada, Mexico, China and Germany, as per industry researcher AutoForecast Solutions.

The 2022 F-150 Lightning from Ford will come at a starting price of $39,974, and is being aimed at both retail and commercial customers.

(with inputs from Reuters)

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