Ford Motor Co. is expanding hiring to increase production capacity for its all-electric F-150 Lightning pickup as it begins building prototypes of the electric vehicle.
The Detroit automaker said Thursday that it plans to invest an additional $250 million and add 450 jobs across three Michigan facilities – including the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center, which is building the truck – to double annual production capacity for the vehicle to 80,000 units. That’s up from 40,000 vehicles a year ago.
Ford has now invested about $950 million in production of a hybrid version of the truck and the electric F-150, which is scheduled to go on sale next spring starting at about $40,000.
More than 150,000 reservations have been made for the vehicle since its debut in May, up from 120,000 at the end of July, according to Ford.
Production and reservations for the F-150 Lightning are being closely watched by investors and industry analysts as a barometer for consumer acceptance of electric vehicles, specifically pickups, which dominate sales in the U.S.
Kumar Galhotra, Ford’s president of the Americas and international markets, said the company expects to hit the 80,000 annual production rate during the second year of production, in 2023. He said Ford has gradually been “pulling levers” to increase production capacity of the F-150 Lightning throughout its supply chain.
“The reservation number has been growing quite rapidly since we launched it,” he told reporters Thursday at the Rouge plant, in Dearborn, Mich. “That’s why we’re increasing capacity and building them as fast as we can.”
Click here to read the full report from Michael Wayland at CNBC.com.
