The Ford F-150 Lightning electric pickup isn’t due until spring 2022, nevertheless Ford on Thursday confirmed that the first pre-production examples of the Lightning are already being constructed on the manufacturing unit which will make consumer-bound variations subsequent 12 months.
The pre-production F-150 Lightning vans is perhaps used for real-world testing, Ford says. It’s widespread for such examples to be used for remaining validation procedures, progress tweaks of automotive strategies, or modifications to the assembly course of.
With the announcement, Ford disclosed plans for a $250 million funding enlargement which will, as beforehand reported, help Ford double annual Lightning production to 80,000 in 2024, from the preliminary objective of 40,000 fashions by then.
Pre-production Ford F-150 Lightning – Rouge Electrical Car Middle
That’s together with the $700 million funding the manufacturing unit was already as a consequence of receive. The enlargement will create 450 further hourly jobs, Ford anticipates, with most of them on the Rouge Electrical Car Middle, a producing base for the Lightning amid Ford’s historic Rouge superior. Battery packs for the F-150 Lightning will come from one shut by facility in Michigan, whereas one different one will make electrical motors and electrical gearboxes.
Not a “fufu California automobile”
U.S. Consultant Debbie Dingell reportedly stated at a corresponding event that the F-150 Lightning confirmed that “electrical automobiles aren’t a fufu California automobile and what actual People drive.”
Pre-production Ford F-150 Lightning – Rouge Electrical Car Middle
It’s unclear whether or not or not that’s a reference to Rivian, which launched its first regular-production electric trucks due for patrons this week, or a recognition of how far EVs have superior since fashions just like the distinctive Focus Electric of some years prior to now—cars that will not have been supplied inside the U.S. with out California’s ZEV mandate.
Ford has already gone to good lengths to affirm that Mach-E demand goes well beyond the California bubble. And the Mach-E and F-150 Lightning are merely the start as Ford is devoted to invest $30 billion into electrification by means of 2025.
