Ford to double electric pickup production and heats up fight with GM

Ford announced this Tuesday (4) that it will practically double the annual production capacity of the F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck to 150,000 vehicles, as the model has already attracted nearly 200,000 reservations before its arrival at US dealerships.

Ford’s announcement comes a day before the public launch of the Chevrolet Silverado electric pickup truck from rival General Motors, which is expected to go on sale in early 2023.

The Silverado E will be presented by GM CEO Mary Barra on Wednesday (4) at a remote session at the annual Consumer Electronics Show technology conference in Las Vegas.

Ford Chief Executive Jim Farley told CNBC in early December that Ford had to stop taking reservations for Lightning 2022 “because we had so many.”

Ford originally had production capacity for between 70,000 and 80,000 electric pickup trucks. Farley said in the December interview that Ford intended to double that amount over the next two years at the factory in Rouge, near the automaker’s headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan.

Ford also plans to triple annual production of the Mustang Mach-E electric crossover to more than 200,000 units by 2023 to meet higher-than-expected demand.

The automaker said it will have annual capacity to assemble 600,000 electric vehicles globally within 24 months, when it aims to become “the second-largest maker of electric vehicles in North America,” behind Tesla, which last year sold more than 900,000 units.

Ford’s future electric vehicles are expected to be manufactured in the US, Canada, Mexico, China and Germany, according to industry research firm AutoForecast Solutions.

The F-150 Lightning 2022 will start at US$39,974 (R$226.9 thousand) and is being targeted to retail and commercial customers. Ford said more than 75% of the electric pickup’s reservation holders are new to the brand.