You’ve seen us write it over a thousand times at this point, there are a lot of electric trucks coming to our streets. One of those trucks is the electrified sibling of the best-selling truck in America, the F-150 Lightning. Many have wondered about whether or not the traditional truck buyer would be willing to make the switch to an electric truck. Needless to say, it looks like a fair amount are willing to make the switch.
For all intents and purposes, the F-150 Lightning is just a regular F-150 but electric. It rides on the same platform and aside from a light bar in the front, looks basically the same. There are of course a few features like the frunk and vehicle-to-grid which sets it apart from the gasoline version, but that’s it. The F-150 Lightning did come with a monumental change in order to possibly position itself to attract “non-truck people” as the Cybertruck did. If you don’t like the regular F-150, you most likely won’t like the same thing, but electric.
So while Ford seemed to be cautious about messing with a winning formula, for the time being, it has paid off. There has been a decent amount of fanfare for the upcoming electric truck, and reservations have reached over to over 120,000 reservations.
Upping Production
According to a report from Reuters, Ford has been met with greater than anticipated demand and is planning to double its production of the Lightning. According to the source, the automaker will dedicate an additional $850 million to hit its new goal.
The report states that the production timeline for the F-150 Lightning looks more or less like this. There are 15,000 units planned for its first year, 55,000 planned in 2023, and now 80,000 planned for 2024. In 2025 the second generation Lightning on an EV-dedicated platform will be introduced and production will go up to 160,000 units annually.
Wait, that’s it?
To put it bluntly, having only 15,000 units in the first year is pretty unimpressive. If you need some context, the Mustang Mach-E is on track to make it to 50,000 in its first production year. In 2019, Ford sold just under 900,000 F-series trucks in the United States. These numbers just do not work.
This means that over the next three years, Ford only plans to produce 150,000 F-150 Lightnings, and there are already over 120,000 reservations. Will there even be meaningful amounts made to even provide for fleet and commercial use, the entire purpose of the lowest trim level? Under normal production conditions, Ford will deliver almost 3 million gasoline F-150 trucks in that same time span in the US alone. The math just doesn’t look pretty.
We all know that spinning up new models is not an easy task. With constant battery supply issues even in the best of times and this seemingly neverending chip shortage, it’s harder than ever to build a car. And in conditions like this, it might be excusable to have a minuscule amount of production for 2022, but you should plan for some grander numbers in the years thereafter. The F-series is not only the best-selling truck in the US, it’s the best-selling vehicle in the country. I would hope Ford wants the electric version to follow in the footsteps of the trucks that came before it. But not with that paltry production.
At the end of it all, these plans have not been officially stated by Ford, so I’ll put out the disclaimer that plans can change in the future.
What do you guys think of the future F-150 Lightning plans? Let us know down in the comments below.
