Ford has started construction on a new factory to build the upcoming electric F-150 pickup truck next to its current pickup factory in Dearborn, Michigan.
You could argue that no one has a bigger stake in electric pickup trucks.
Electrification has disrupted every segment it has touched, and with Ford being the leader in the pickup truck segment with the F-150, it has the most to lose if it doesn’t play a big part in electrifying the segment.
Ford sold about 900,000 F-Series pickup trucks last year, bringing in around $42 billion in revenue. The US automaker has a plan to bring an electric F-150 to market, but not much is known about it.
When confirming plans to launch an all-electric version of the F-150, Ford’s best-selling pickup truck, Darren Palmer, the head of Ford’s Team Edison, said that the automaker was aiming to bring the electric F-150 to market “before 2022.”
This would have put the vehicle in line with a series of new electric pickup trucks scheduled to come in “late 2021,” like Tesla Cybertruck and GMC Hummer EV.
However, earlier this year, Ford confirmed that the production will start in 2022.
Ford is currently working on bringing a redesigned F-150 next year.
While it’s retooling its factories for the new version of the truck, Bloomberg reports that Ford also started building a new plant next to its Dearborn factory to build the new electric version:
Ford will temporarily shut a factory in Michigan next month to install machinery for the redesigned F-150 pickup going on sale next year. The automaker also is constructing a new facility adjacent to its Dearborn, Michigan, truck plant to build an electric version of the F-150, according to people familiar with the project. Prototype production is expected to start next year, said the people, who asked not to be identified revealing internal plans.
While the first production prototypes are expected next year, the actual volume production for dealerships is not expected until 2022.
Interestingly, it’s going to be Ford’s first electric vehicle built from the ground up to be produced in the US.
This year, Ford is bringing the Mustang Mach-E to market, but the vehicle is built in Mexico.
With an official launch date in 2022, the Ford F-150 Electric is coming after the Tesla Cybertruck, Rivian R1T, Lordstown Endurance, and several other electric pickup trucks slated for 2021.
However, all these programs are based on building new factories or major retooling of existing factories, and therefore, the timelines for any of those new vehicle programs could also slip.
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