Ford Increasing Lightning Production In Response To Strong Customer Demand

FORD INCREASING PRODUCTION OF POPULAR ELECTRIC, GAS, HYBRID VEHICLES IN RESPONSE TO STRONG CUSTOMER DEMAND

MAR 3, 2023 | DEARBORN

• Ford is boosting production of its popular EVs – Mustang Mach-E®, F-150® LightningTM and E-TransitTM – along with other customer favorites like Bronco® Sport and Maverick®
• Ford’s Kansas City Assembly Plant will add a third crew in April to increase production of the best-selling Transit and E-Transit vans
• In addition to production increases, Ford is studying ways to boost output at Dearborn Truck Plant to meet continued strong demand for the gas and PowerBoostTM hybrid models of the F-150. Ford F-Series is America’s best-selling truck for 46 consecutive years

DEARBORN, Mich., March 3, 2023 – Ford is increasing production at manufacturing plants across North America to meet strong customer demand for vehicles including Mustang Mach-E, F-150 Lightning, Bronco Sport and Maverick. The company is also preparing to launch all-new versions of four significant vehicles in 2023: Super Duty®, Ranger®, Mustang® and Escape®.

“We have had a strong start to 2023 sales and we are moving to fast-track quality production,” said Kumar Galhotra, president, Ford Blue. “Increasing production benefits both our customers and our business.”

Through February, Ford is America’s No. 1 selling overall brand as well as the top truck manufacturer and SUV brand. Ford electric vehicle sales are up 68 percent.

In February, Ford’s U.S. market share increased by 1.4 percentage points to 13.3 percent, powered by a 21.9 percent sales increase.

Mustang Mach-E: Ford began increasing production of the Mustang Mach-E this week. Changes at the plant will allow Ford to nearly double its hourly production and bring its annual manufacturing run rate to a targeted 210,000 units by years’ end.

Mustang Mach-E helped propel Ford to No. 2 in U.S. EV sales in 2022, and is bringing new customers to Ford, with more than two-thirds of customers coming from other makes.

Bronco Sport and Maverick: Ford is increasing production for Bronco Sport and Maverick. Production is targeted to increase by more than 80,000 units this year, helping to meet demand in both North and South America. In the U.S., Ford brand SUV sales totaled 777,770, up 4.6% in 2022 versus 2021, led by the Bronco family of vehicles. Maverick was the No. 1 small truck in America in 2022.

F-150 Lightning: In Michigan, production of the F-150 Lightning at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center is on track to triple this year, targeting an annual production run rate of 150,000 by the end of 2023. The F-150 Lightning, the best-selling electric truck in the U.S., had sales of 3,600 through February, in addition to the 15,617 sales recorded in 2022. F-150 Lightning production will resume March 13. Overall, for the F-150 Lightning production increase, Ford is investing $2 billion across three plants in Michigan and adding 3,200 union jobs.

Transit and E-Transit: Also adding an additional crew in April is Kansas City Assembly Plant, which manufactures the Transit and the E-Transit vans, America’s best-selling gas and electric vans in 2022. Ford is targeting an annual production increase of 38,000. Ford is investing $95 million and adding 1,100 union jobs as part of the production increase. Ford is America’s best-selling commercial van maker for 45 straight years.

F-150 and F-150 PowerBoost: Ford is also looking at ways to increase production at the Dearborn Truck Plant of the F-150 gas and hybrid trucks to meet continued strong demand. The F-Series holds the title of America’s best-selling truck for 46 consecutive years.

Rings rather hollow given that Lightning production has been shutdown for weeks.

We already knew they planned on ramping up, I recall a slide somewhere that showed when they plan to shut down for an overhaul of the line. Something like 70% of production to come after the spring if my memory serves.

Zprime29 said:

We already knew they planned on ramping up, I recall a slide somewhere that showed when they plan to shut down for an overhaul of the line. Something like 70% of production to come after the spring if my memory serves.

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Actually late 2023 per FordAuthority.com

Yes this is old news for those that have been paying attention. The OP's article is simply Ford's standard month end investor / marketing spin on the current state of Ford. Which since it is obviously for investors it will be skewed to the positive news.

@luebri Thanks, yeah that's what I was trying to remember. I was off a skosh on the timeline I see.

Meanwhile dealers are still marking these up "Ford doesn't have enough parts to build"

Maquis said:

Rings rather hollow given that Lightning production has been shutdown for weeks.

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Not really. They have done pull-ahead work in the plant while production has been stopped to increase line speed. So we should be producing more per hour when production is resumed on the 13th than before it was shut down.

Those of us with Lightnings held in transit aren't impressed. I'd rather see Ford deliver trucks that it built than tell us how many more they are building.

Pioneer74 said:

Not really. They have done pull-ahead work in the plant while production has been stopped to increase line speed. So we should be producing more per hour when production is resumed on the 13th than before it was shut down.

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That‘s good news, for sure.

But those with trucks in limbo:

detansinn said:

Those of us with Lightnings held in transit aren't impressed. I'd rather see Ford deliver trucks that it built than tell us how many more they are building.

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Pioneer74 said:

Not really. They have done pull-ahead work in the plant while production has been stopped to increase line speed. So we should be producing more per hour when production is resumed on the 13th than before it was shut down.

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Correct me if I'm wrong, but If their supply chain has not been ramped up yet (since its been scheduled to be ready prior to a August ramp) then them improving assembly line rates would just be prematurely starving the supply chain in the interim. Im not saying they should not utilize the down time to work on this, I am just saying they wont see the dividends from production until the supply chain is aligned with its ramp.

I'd guess it's in response to the Tesla Superchargers opening up. There has been a lot of press on number and maintenance status of fast chargers across the country. This opens up travel to be much less of a hassle. Whether we already knew a ramp up was coming Ford want's to get it back out there to catch that PR wave.

luebri said:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but If their supply chain has not been ramped up yet (since its been scheduled to be ready prior to a August ramp) then them improving assembly line rates would just be prematurely starving the supply chain in the interim. Im not saying they should not utilize the down time to work on this, I am just saying they wont see the dividends from production until the supply chain is aligned with its ramp.

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Good questions. I don’t have the answers. My only hope is that maybe the supply chain worked on their constraints as well. They knew a ramp-up was coming. It was all supposed to happen in June/July, but some work in the plant could be completed early.

Pioneer74 said:

Good questions. I don’t have the answers. My only hope is that maybe the supply chain worked on their constraints as well. They knew a ramp-up was coming. It was all supposed to happen in June/July, but some work in the plant could be completed early.

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Yea... I would highly doubt it. Im involved in custom oem manufacturing (distantly related to auto for some aspects) and in the industrial manufacturing space the words supply chain and delivered early have not been referenced in the years 2022 or 2023. It is typically more like... "how late"

Adjustments for data shown in this news release....

American car manufacturers best be on their game. If they continue to be restricting delivery to dealerships and the foreign manufacturers don't, they will lose market share.