The upcoming all-electric Ford F-150 Lightning pickup and Ford E-Transit van already attracted a lot of customers, who placed over 150,000 reservation for an electric F-150, and over 24,000 for electric Transit.
That’s a great result, but according to a recent Reuters‘ article, there is also a group of Ford’s fleet customers that are reluctant. They are taking a “wait and see” attitude. As a result, there are mixed signals about EVs.
We would say that it’s normal behavior that some groups find the first generation of electric versions good enough for their needs, while others would like to take a step back and see, or need more range for some applications.
Ted Cannis, chief executive of Ford Pro, said at the Reuters Events Automotive Summit that electric Fords “are targeted at real people doing real work.”
He expects that in the U.S. we will see mass electrification of the bus/van and pickup segment by 2030:
“In the U.S., we see 70% of the full-size bus and van industry going electric by 2030. That’s more than 300,000 vehicles annually. And we expect a third of the full-size pickup (market) to go all-electric by 2030, which is more than 800,000 vehicles annually.
With electric work trucks and vans, Cannis said, fleet customers can save money on fuel, maintenance and repairs, “but there is still a fear of the unknown” about EVs among both employees and managers.”
Anyway, one thing is sure, Ford will not have a demand problem. The company actually has a challenge to start the volume production to meet demand: “we have so much demand, I’m not sure how we can supply.”
As far as we know, the plan is to achieve an annual production rate of 15,000 F-150 Lightning in 2022, 55,000 in 2023 and 80,000 in 2024 (increase from 40,000 planned initially).
Another interesting view about the Ford F-150 Lightning launch comes from Kumar Galhotra, Ford Motor Co. president of the Americas and international markets:
