DEARBORN, MI—Ford Motor Co. says it is planning to nearly double production of the F-150 Lightning pickup at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center here to 150,000 trucks per year, to meet high demand. Last Thursday, reservation holders began placing their orders for the vehicle, with more than 75 percent of them being new to the Ford brand.

“With nearly 200,000 reservations, our teams are working hard and creatively to break production constraints to get more F-150 Lightning trucks into the hands of our customers,” says Kumar Galhotra, president of The Americas & International Markets Group at Ford Motor. “The reality is clear: 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.”

Reservation holders are being asked to watch for an invitation via email from Ford or to log into their Ford.com account over the next few months. Those who don’t receive invitations to convert for the 2022 model year will have an opportunity to order a future model year vehicle in due course.

Ford is working with key suppliers–as well as with its own manufacturing facilities Rawsonville Components Plant and Van Dyke Electric Powertrain Center–to find ways to increase capacity of electric vehicle parts, including battery cells, battery trays and electric drive systems. 

Last week marked the final prebuild phase before accelerating into mass production of F-150 Lightning trucks for retail customers and F-150 Lightning Pro for commercial customers. These production-level trucks will be used for testing in real-world customer conditions, collectively accumulating 1 million miles. Production of the 2022 electric F-150 Lightning will begin this spring.

Within 24 months, Ford will have the global capacity to produce 600,000 battery electric vehicles annually. Overall, Ford is investing more than $30 billion in electric vehicles through 2025.