The Ford F-150 Lightning pickup truck is being posed for a picture by the Ford CEO.
Jim Farley, CEO of Ford Motor, expects the company to become the second-largest US-based producer of electric vehicles by the year 2023, with a production capacity of 600,000 units.
According to a report Thursday from automotive news, the increase would double the number of electric vehicles the company would produce over the next 24 months. The production is expected to be spread across Ford's first three new EV: the mustang Mach-E, F-150 Lightning and E-Transit. It would come before production begins at the Tennessee plant, according to the Detroit-based publication.
The demand is much higher than expected. It is a new experience for this big company. We had to approach it differently than we have done before.
It is not clear if 600,000 would place second behindTesla. General Motor plans to sell 1 million electric vehicles. In its third-quarter investor update, the company said that it has a vehicle assembly plant in California that can make 600,000 cars per year and a plant in China that can make more than 450,000 cars per year. New factories are being built in Austin, Texas, and Berlin.
Through the first nine months of this year, GM has sold over 300,000 EV's, mostly in China. In addition to plants in China and Michigan that already produce such vehicles, GM plans to convert at least four North American plants to be able to produce EVs in the coming years.
Ford plans to convert more than 80% of reservation holders for the upcoming F-150 Lightning EV into owners, according to the company's website. More than 160,000 reservations have been placed for the vehicle ahead of its arrival in dealerships in mid-2022, according to Ford.
CNBC's Lora Kolodny contributed to the report.
