Ford Motor Company has confirmed that 160,000 reservations have been made for the all-electric F-150 Lightning pickup trucks, just six months after its debut.
Since its unveiling, the U.S. automaker has accepted $100 refundable reservations. Ford has received a lot of consumer interest. They have taken 20,000 reservations the first day, 44,000 the second, and 120,000 the third day.
Jim Farley, the CEO of Ford, stated that 75% of these customers were new to Ford during a June second-quarter earnings conference.
He said that 40% of people planned to trade in their internal combustion engine trucks. This indicates that they are moving a bit faster than our optimistic assumptions to full-size trucks [battery electric cars].
The automaker responded to the reservations figures by saying it would allocate an additional $250 million to bolster its workforce of 450 and increase its annual production capacity for the Lightning. Customers will be able to purchase the trucks in spring 2022.
The automaker's strategy to convert a larger portion of its fleet to electric includes the Lightning. It will be available in four trims. Rivian, which just rolled off its first R1T truck in September, is joining Ford in aiming at the pickup truck market. The F-150 is America's best-selling truck. Ford reported that it sold 787,422 F series trucks in 2020.
The base Lightning model will be available at $39,974 while the midseries XLT model is available at $52,974 (excl. taxes).
