Ford doubles production capacity of electric F-150

In mid-2020, Ford pulled the curtain on the F-150 Lightning, a fully electric derivative of the immensely popular F-150 in the United States since time immemorial. Initially, Ford had the intention to build 40,000 units a year. In August, Ford announced that it would produce more than 80,000 units annually from 2024 and Ford now indicates that it wants to produce as many as 150,000 F-150s Lightning annually from mid-2023. That is almost four times as much as originally intended.

Ford F-150 Lightning

Ford has already received 200,000 reservations for the F-150 Lightning. Later this week, a first group of reservation holders will receive an invitation to place a final order. The first copies will be built this year, but in the whole of 2022 there will be nowhere near 80,000 units. In August, Ford said it expected to be able to produce about 15,000 Lightning F-150s by 2022.

Depending on the version chosen, the Ford F-150 Lightning has a 98 kWh or 131 kWh battery pack. The version with 98 kWh electric lung capacity has a 432 hp powertrain, while the version with the largest battery pack in its strongest form kicks up to 571 hp. With the 98 kWh battery, the electric pick-up can travel about 370 kilometers, the variant with 131 kWh battery kicks it up to about 480 kilometers of range. In all cases, the F-150 Lightning has two electric motors and is always a four-wheel drive.

Ford is not the only American car maker that comes with a large electric pick-up. In the very short term, Chevrolet will introduce an electric Silverado, RAM is working on an electric alternative to the 1500, Tesla has the Cybertruck in the pipeline and newcomers such as Rivian will soon have an electric pick-up in the range. Here you can read more about the electric F-150 Lightning, the name of which you may know from the extra potent version of the then current F-150 (SVT Lightning) delivered until 2004.