Ford delivers its first F-150 Lightning as EV truck war kicks into high gear

Photo by Andrew Hawkins / The Verge

The first person in the nation to receive a Ford F-150 is a man from Michigan. Richardson Ford, a dealership in the small town of Standish, Michigan, delivered a silver electric truck to the chief technology officer of a grid optimization startup.

According to the report, he put a deposit down for one of the company's Cybertrucks and also considered purchasing a Rivian R1T truck. When it was clear that the F-150 would be the first to arrive, his wife was relieved. The Cybertruck reservation is no longer needed according toSchmidt.

Ford is counting on its decades of production and delivery expertise as well as its vast network of dealerships as it seeks to vault over its rivals in the race to get electric trucks to the most people. The F-150 is the best-selling vehicle in the US for the last 40 years, and it is one of the top-selling vehicles in the country.

Rivian is the first to bring an electric truck to market, but Ford's F-series is expected to drive more customers to switch to EVs. Despite being introduced in 2019, the Cybertruck isn't expected to go into production until at least 2023.

The EV truck war will be fierce, but Ford may have bought itself some breathing room thanks to the speed with which it got the F-150 Lightning to market. The premium Hummer EV truck is nearly three times the price of the F-150 Lightning, so it really can't be considered to be in the same category. The Chevy Silverado EV is expected to be much more affordable, but won't start production until 2023. When the electric Ram 1500 truck will debut is not known.

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Ford will have constraints of its own. The number of electric F-150s Ford planned on making in its first few years of production has been a bit of a shifting target. Initially, the company only intended to target 40,000 vehicles annually, but later told suppliers it expected the capacity to increase to 80,000 by early 2023. It's unclear how many will reach customers this year, but the number of trucks has risen to 150,000 by mid-2023.

To inform customers when they can go online to spec out their Lightnings, the company is using a wave-by- wave reservation process. Ford stopped taking reservations earlier this year after collecting 200,000 deposits for the Lightning. As of this article, reservations are still closed. The Rouge Electric Vehicle Center has a production target of 160,000 units per year.

The F-150 will be used to haul wood and towing, according to the man. The number of customers who will get to do truck stuff with their F-150s will be up to Ford.