Ford restarts F-150 Lightning production to meet order backlog, offer more test drives

After a six-week shutdown for retooling and expansion, Ford Motor Co. has restarted production of its all-electric F-150 Lightning in Dearborn with about a 45-day supply of customer orders to fill, the automaker announced Tuesday.

“We’ve sold stock when we were shut down in June and July. We’ve got work to do,” Marin Gjaja, chief customer officer for Ford Model e, told reporters about the Monday restart on a conference call. “We’ve also got ground stock to replenish as well as demos to deliver.”

Despite a reported dip in demand for electric vehicles industrywide, and globally, he said, “We feel very good right now. But the future is somewhat unpredictable and volatile. We’ll have to see how the market plays out. We’re seeing competition increase. … We’re going to have to adjust with the market … We look at the U.S. and EVs are growing 40% or more on volume year on year for the automotive industry. That’s incredible growth.”

Gjaja added, “The demand is there. We now have the supply to match it.”

Ford is on track to triple its production capacity at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center to a targeted annual production run rate of 150,000 units by the end of September, said Debbie Manzano, director of manufacturing.

“We are all looking forward to getting these F-150 Lightning trucks into the hands of our customers, from the U.S. all the way to Norway,” Manzano said.

Factory redesign will help increase efficiency and improve quality, she said.

The factory now utilizes equipment to automatically measure and validate exterior body fit for margin and flushness precision, the first time such tools have been deployed in Ford’s North American plants, Manzano told reporters. A station was added to validate wheel alignment and headlamp aim for driver assist technology, she said.

Training for about 1,200 additional manufacturing employees will continue for three weeks, a mix of workers that includes UAW members who transferred from the Dearborn Truck plant and new hires, Manzano said. New workers are shadowing experienced employees in a buddy system to speed up learning, she said.

The plant began with about 500 workers and now has an estimated 2,000 total, Manzano said.

Ford is scheduled to build more than 70,000 F-150 Lightning trucks in calendar year 2023, Ford said in its news release.

Already, lower prices over the past two weeks have increased orders “sixfold,” the release said.

In mid-July, the automaker slashed prices of the Lightning:

• Pro: $59,974 to $49,995 ($9,979 cut)
• Base XLT: $64,474 to $54,995 ($9,479 cut)
• XLT Premium: $68,474 to $59,995 ($8,479 cut)
• XLT Premium, Extended (Battery) Range: $78,874 to $69,995 ($8,879 cut)
• Lariat: $76,974 to $69,995 ($6,979 cut)
• Lariat Extended (Battery) Range : $85,974 to $77,495 ($8,479 cut)
• Platinum Extended (Battery) Range: $98,074 to $91,995 ($6,079 cut)