DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. today will start regular manufacturing of its F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck, more than tripling planned annual production of the vehicle that now symbolizes the 118-year-old company’s drive to retool for a new century.
Ford will mark the “Job One” ceremony for the Lightning with a webcast set for Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. EDT. The event marks the sharp acceleration of the Lightning’s assembly system at Ford’s Rouge Electric Vehicle Center near Detroit in Dearborn, Mich.
Ford aims to build 150,000 Lightning trucks a year at the new part of its historic Rouge manufacturing complex while it builds a much larger electric vehicle production complex in Tennessee.
It had planned to build just 40,000 annually, but surging demand for EVs prompted Ford to increase planned production twice since last August of the Lightning, a heavily modified version of its best-selling F-150 pickup truck.
About 200,000 customers made reservations for the Lightning before Ford cut off taking preliminary orders in December.
The Lightning will hit showrooms behind startup Rivian’s electric R1T pickup, but ahead of General Motors’ electric Silverado, Stellantis’ promised electric Ram truck and Tesla Inc.’s Cybertruck, which has been delayed until next year at the earliest.
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