Ford’s new electrified F-150 Lightning is so exciting that the company received over 45,000 pre-orders within the first 48 hours. Popularity hasn’t slowed down, either, and Ford recently confirmed that it had closed the pre-order system after receiving nearly 200,000 orders.
Essentially, the F-150 Lightning is so popular that now you can’t have one, orders are closed, and potential buyers could be waiting nearly three years to receive their truck.
Earlier this year, Ford announced the F-150 Lightning, an electric version of its best-selling truck capable of over 300-miles per charge and a starting price under $40k. Obviously, that garnered a lot of attention to the point that they’ve received more orders than they’ll be able to fill and had to disable pre-orders on the official Ford website.
While interest in electric trucks is undoubtedly good news for the U.S. auto industry, Ford could be in a bit of a pinch production-wise. Previously, Ford suggested that it only plans to produce around 15,000 F-150 Lightning trucks in 2022, about 55,000 in 2023, and hopefully over 80,000 in 2024. Unfortunately, that means that they won’t finish the first wave of pre-orders even in three years.
“We have a dedicated team right now just doing one thing: finding a way to double our capacity by finding batteries, whatever it takes, to double our capacity of Lightning,” Ford CEO Jim Farley tells @JimCramer. https://t.co/tvYQLzCVBD
— Mad Money On CNBC (@MadMoneyOnCNBC) December 8, 2021
It’s worth noting that Ford is very aware of the situation, according to Reuters, and plans to double its production in 2025 to over 160,000 vehicles, which will help ease supply and demand for what will likely be the 2nd generation Ford F-150 Lightning. Plus, per the tweet above, Ford CEO Jim Cramer has an entire team dedicated to ramping up production.
It sounds like Ford will open the order banks sometime in early 2022 as production kicks off, allowing reservation holders to customize and order their vehicles. If there’s a silver lining, it’s that Ford only required a $100 deposit per reservation, and as things move along, many potential buyers could cancel an order and allow others to get the truck.
As things sit right now, the first 2-3 years’ worth of production will go to reservations, meaning anyone that didn’t order one likely won’t have an easy time getting an F-150 Lightning anytime soon.
via InsideEVs
