Responding to soaring demand for its EVs, Ford has been regularly announcing increases in planned production numbers. In December, CEO Jim Farley said demand had been “two to three times what we expected.”

Now Ford says it plans to double production of the F-150 Lightning at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn to 150,000 vehicles per year. This week, the first group of reservation holders will be invited to begin placing firm orders.

Ford is racing to make its production ramp-up more flexible. To achieve the latest production increase, a small task force of employees from manufacturing, purchasing, strategy, product development and capacity planning are finding ways to quickly adapt and expand production. Ford is also working with key suppliers to find ways to increase capacity of key EV parts, including battery cells, battery trays and electric drive systems.

“With nearly 200,000 reservations, our teams are working hard and creatively to break production constraints in order to get more F-150 Lightning trucks into the hands of our customers,” said Kumar Galhotra, President of Ford ‘s Americas and International Markets Group. “People are ready for an all-electric F-150, and Ford is pulling out all the stops to scale our operations and increase production capacity.”

The autoworkers’ union signaled that it’s on board with an aggressive electrification push. “The pride and quality UAW members are putting into building the iconic Ford F-150 Lightning is evident in the high pre-production demand,” said UAW Vice President Chuck Browning. “UAW members are leading the way in doubling the amount of vehicles Ford is producing for this game-changing model of our legendary union-built vehicle.”

Deliveries of the 2022 F-150 Lightning pickup will begin in spring 2022 with a starting MSRP of $39,974 before any available tax incentives.

It’s not only the Lightning that’s lighting things up at Ford. The company also recently tripled planned production for the Mustang Mach-E, and expects to exceed 200,000 units per year by 2023.

Source: Ford