Unveiled with pomp and circumstance back in May, the Ford F-150 Lightning was an instant hit and has managed to rack up approximately 200,000 reservations to this day. You can no longer sign up by paying a refundable $100 fee to get the fullsize electric pickup truck as the Blue Oval has updated the EV’s product page to announce reservations are officially closed: “As we prepare to make history together, we’ve closed reservations so we can start accepting orders.”
Demand for the reborn Lightning has far exceeded Ford’s projections, with the Dearborn automaker recently deciding to double production by investing an additional $250 million and hiring and creating an extra 450 jobs. The original plan was to make 40,000 units a year, but that number has since grown to 80,000 vehicles annually at the Rouge plant in Michigan.
Providing all reservations will be converted to firm orders, which frankly seems highly unlikely, the Blue Oval will need two and a half years to clear out the backlog. Ford CEO Jim Farley has a more realistic estimation of 80% of the reservations being converted to actual sales, so it’s safe to say the F-150 EV is likely sold out for the first two model years. That’s especially true if we take into consideration the 200,000 reservations do not include fleet buyers.
In a recent interview with Automotive News, Ford’s head honcho said 70% of reservations holders are not only new to the brand, but also haven’t purchased a pickup truck before, while the rest of them are existing F-150 owners. Sales of the hotly anticipated zero-emissions truck will commence in spring 2022. Pricing kicks off at $39,974 MSRP for the commercial-oriented SR version and goes all the way up to $90,474 if you order the Lightning ER Platinum with all the bells and whistles.
Ford North America Product Communications director Mike Levine took to Twitter to confirm it’s too late to get in line to purchase the F-150 Lightning:
https://t.co/RLDi4xoNbA pic.twitter.com/85VNnPw7FL
— Mike Levine (@mrlevine) December 8, 2021
Source: Ford, Mike Levine / Twitter
