Production of the Sold Out 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning Production Is Officially Underway
Now that the 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning is rolling off the assembly line amid high demand, can The Blue Oval build enough of them?
The 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning was revealed nearly one year ago and quickly proved that there is considerable public interest in all-electric pickups after racking up a whopping 200,000 reservations in short order. This higher than expected demand exceeded Ford’s expectations by a long shot, which prompted the automaker to stop taking reservations for the F-150 Lightning shortly thereafter. Now, as it works to quickly ramp up production to meet that demand, The Blue Oval is officially building EV pickups for customers at the brand new Rouge Electric Vehicle Center.
The automaker announced this historic occasion via a special livestream event, which the company’s executive chair, Bill Ford, called “a Model T moment for the 21st century,” which is high praise indeed. After all, the Model T is the vehicle that make it possible for everyone to actually own a vehicle, which means that the 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning has some massive shoes to fill as FoMoCo invests heavily in an all-electric transition.
Ford intends to produce two million EVs each year across the glove by 2026, and it will invest $50 billion to achieve that goal. It’s certainly ambitious for a legacy automaker that was quite resistant to the idea of electric vehicles until very recently, though it now has three to offer customers – the Mustang Mach-E, E-Transit, and F-150 Lighting, with many more on the way in the coming years.
This certainly feels like a watershed moment for Ford, which knows that the F-150 Lightning is critical to its future success. Given the fact that the entire 2022 model year is officially sold out, it seems that they hit a proverbial home run, at least for now. However, in the midst of numerous supply chain constraints including the semiconductor chip shortage, there are far more obstacles to overcome as Ford aims to ramp up F-150 Lightning production to 150,000 units annually by next year. Thus, even though folks are lining up to buy one, the question remains – will The Blue Oval be able to build enough F-150 Lightning pickups to jump start its planned electric revolution?
Photos: Ford