Ford has begun full production of its all-electric F-150 Lightning pickup truck with demand already at high levels with 200,000 reservations for the new vehicle.
The American automotive OEM will manufacture the F-150 Lightning at its Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Ford’s Rouge Complex. Ford is expanding the center to ramp up production to a planned annual run rate of 150,000 vehicles in 2023 and has invested $950 million at the facility.
Ford said it will deliver more than 2 million EVs annually by 2026, equal to about one-third of the company’s global volume. By 2030, EVs will be 50% of the total volume of vehicles produced by Ford.
Ford has invested in Michigan for F-150 Lightning of more than $1 billion, creating 1,700 jobs spread across five Ford plants in the state including the Van Dyke Electric Powertrain Center, where the Lightning electric motors and electric transaxles are assembled and the Rawsonville Components Plant, where the Lightning batteries are assembled.
“America’s real transition to electric vehicles starts now,” said Jim Farley, president and CEO at Ford. “F-150 Lightning is just the beginning of our ambitions for growth and leadership in digital, electric vehicles. We continue to expand our EV manufacturing footprint across the U.S., including the start of site preparation at BlueOval City, which will enable us to meet the ever-increasing customer demand for our exciting EV line-up.”
Lightning details
The Lightning pickup includes lockable storage to store 400 liters of cargo out of sight. The Mega Power Frunk (front trunk) doubles as a cooler, the truck as 2.4 kW of exportable power combined with 5.5 ft bed and cab bringing the Pro Power Onboard power up to 9.6 kW from 11 power points.
Ford has started a pilot project with California’s Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) to test how an F-150 Lightning could help power a house during an outage for up to three days. It could also power other electric vehicles if one runs out of power.
Other details include:
- Acceleration from 0 to 60 mph in 4 seconds.
- BlueCruise hands-free driving.
- Zero-emissions with as much as 320 EPA-estimated miles of range.
- Extended battery range with an 80 amp Connected Charge Station Pro to get a full charge overnight on AC power with dual on-board chargers.