On Jan. 5, Ford Motor Company will open the Fleet Order Bank for the 22-MY all-electric F-150 Lightning, Ford said in a statement. The order bank for retail buyers opens on Jan. 6.
Fleets looking to order an F-150 Lightning in the first wave must have entered their interest as a “hand-raiser” with a valid FIN on Ford’s website. This reservation system, which includes retail buyers, was closed on Dec. 8 and was capped at 200,000. Additional reservation holders will be invited in phases to place their order over the next few months, according to Ford.
In some cases, larger fleets have structured orders directly with their Ford Pro Fleet Account person, who can also help to place orders, according to a Ford Pro spokesperson in an email exchange with Automotive Fleet.
Notifications will be sent to fleet hand raisers via email urging them to contact their preferred dealership to place an order.
Ford Pro recommends fleet customers sign up for updates on the FordPro.com F-150 Lightning vehicle homepage for news on the F-150 Lightning specific to commercial and government customers. “Ford Pro will use this tool to communicate when the next opportunity to place orders will be, which will be for later model years,” the spokesperson said.
Regarding pricing: “We’re working with our dealer partners to offer our customers the best possible sales and ownership experience,” the Ford Pro spokesperson said. “Dealers are independent franchises. The final price a customer will pay for any vehicle is agreed between themselves and a dealer that’s at, below, or above MSRP. We recommend that all customers agree to a selling price with their dealer when an order is placed via a signed purchase agreement.”
This week, production for F-150 Lightning entered the final pre-build phase before accelerating into mass production. Deliveries will begin in spring 2022 with a starting MSRP of $39,974 before available tax incentives.
Regarding production volume for 2022 model year, the spokesperson said that specifics will be shared closer to launch. “We are ramping up to a target of approximately 80k units for 23MY and then to a run-rate of 150K by mid-2023,” the spokesperson said.
This target is accelerated compared to Ford’s statement in August, in which it projected the 80,000 units for 2024 and the annual production goal of 150,00 units by 2025. The initial goal was for 15,000 units to be produced in 2022, though that target is likely to be revised upward.
In addition to scaling Lightning production, Ford recently announced the tripling of production for the Mustang Mach-E and expects to reach 200,000+ units per year by 2023. Ford’s all-electric van, the E-Transit, goes on sale early this year. Within 24 months, Ford said it will have the global capacity to produce 600,000 battery-electric vehicles annually.
“With nearly 200,000 reservations, our teams are working hard and creatively to break production constraints in order to get more F-150 Lightning trucks into the hands of our customers,” said Kumar Galhotra, president of The Americans & International Markets Group, Ford Motor Company. “The reality is clear: people are ready for an all-electric F-150 and Ford is pulling out all the stops to scale our operations and increase production capacity.”
Ford is building the all-electric F-150 Lightning pickup at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, Mich. Production will ultimately transition to its all-new $5.6 billion mega campus in Stanton, Tenn., called Blue Oval City. The campus also includes BlueOvalSK Battery Park, one of three facilities to produce batteries in conjunction with SK Innovation. The other two are being constructed in central Kentucky at BlueOval SK Battery Park.
