Ford has began preliminary pre-production of its electrical F-150 Lightning pickup truck at a brand new plant in Dearborn, Mich.
Michael Wayland | CNBC
DETROIT – Ford Motor on Tuesday mentioned it plans to just about double annual manufacturing capability of its upcoming electrical F-150 pickup to 150,000 cars in step with yr via mid-2023, mentioning sturdy person call for.
The rise is a good signal of call for for the F-150 Lightning in addition to electrical cars generally but in addition presentations Ford considerably underestimated call for for the truck, inflicting it to now scramble to extend it. That is the second one time Ford has mentioned it plans to double manufacturing of the car, which is due out within the spring. Preliminary manufacturing was once set for roughly 40,000 devices.
“The reception of this car has been completely unbelievable,” Kumar Galhotra, Ford president of the Americas & world markets, mentioned Tuesday all through CNBC’s “Squawk Field.”
Stocks of Ford have been up via about 3% all through pre-market buying and selling.
Ford’s manufacturing plans come earlier than the automaker begins taking orders for the car on Thursday. The corporate gained about 200,000 nonbinding reservations for the truck earlier than it stopped taking the pre-orders final month.
At the moment, Ford CEO Jim Farley instructed CNBC that the corporate was once doing “no matter it takes” to double manufacturing capability for the F-150 Lightning.
“We needed to prevent reservations, we were given such a lot of,” Farley instructed CNBC’s Jim Cramer. “We stopped at 200,000, and the ones are orders. Laborious orders.”
Ford mentioned it’ll be imposing a “wave-by-wave reservation procedure,” with reservation holders being requested to stay up for a call for participation by means of e-mail from Ford or to log into their Ford.com account over the following few months to position an order for his or her car.
This week is the overall pre-build segment earlier than transitioning into mass manufacturing of F-150 Lightning vans for retail shoppers and F-150 Lightning Professional for business shoppers, Ford mentioned.
Ford’s manufacturing plans come an afternoon earlier than Common Motors is scheduled to show an electrical model of its Chevrolet Silverado. The pickup is anticipated to compete extra at once with the F-150 Lightning than its GMC Hummer EV, which not too long ago began delivery to customers. The Silverado is not anticipated to move on sale till 2023.
Pricing for the F-150 Lightning, similar to the normal pickup, has a variety. A piece-oriented model of the truck will get started at $39,974. Extra consumer-centric fashions will get started at $52,974 and best out at round $90,000.
