Ford F-150 Lightning reservations surpass 160,000 during pre-production

Ford Motor Company has maintained a steady flow of $100 reservation holders for its upcoming electric F-150 Lightning pickup, and that has now surpassed 160,000 in total. Every indication is that these reservation numbers will continue to grow as the F-150 Lightning goes on sale next spring.

This past May, Ford unveiled the an all-electric version of its decades-long, best-selling pickup, the F-150 Lightning.

Apart from being reasonably priced with decent range, an electrified version of the F-Series, a household name in the US, has the potential to truly accelerate the public’s transition to electric vehicles.

Since its initial launch, the US automaker began taking F-150 Lightning reservations with a $100 refundable deposit. Instantly, consumer interest was piqued.

Ford CEO Jim Farley initially revealed that the Lightning received 20,000 reservations on the first day, and was soon eclipsing 44,000 reservations for the F-150 Lightning within 48 hours.

Demand for the F-150 Lightning reservations carried steadily through the summer, a total of 120,000 pre-orders by the end of July. From there, reservations appeared to have slowed down, only adding about 10,000 additional pre-orders in August and September.

Consumers must have been busy getting their kids back in school at around that time, because F-150 Lightning reservations have picked up again.

Ford F-150 Lightning now has over 160,000 reservations

A recent Tweet from @NatBullard at BloombergNEF shared that Ford has now surpassed the 160,000 mark for Lightning reservations.

Clearly the appetite is there. However, how does this hype compare to other competitors? Rivian’s R1T pickup has already begun Launch Edition deliveries to customers, so they win the race to market.

Tesla’s Cybertruck has seen continued delays and appears to have recently taken a step back by having its specs and pricing removed. Still, prototypes have been spotted, and the company is still taking $100 reservations, like Ford.

What’s different is that Cybertruck had garnered over 1 million reservations when the F-150 Lightning was first introduced. That being said, these are two very different brands offering very different versions of an electric truck.

Regardless of Tesla’s brand success, Ford should feel quite encouraged by its numbers, especially as they pertain to the automaker’s production timeline for the electric Lightning. Ford has previously shared plans to produce 15,000 Lightning trucks in 2022, 55,000 in 2023, and 80,000 in 2024. 

Electrek previously covered news that Ford plans to double its Lightning production based off these promising reservations, and will target 160,000 trucks in 2025 with its second-generation Lightning.

It’s fair to say that not every current $100 reservation holder is going to pull the trigger and purchase a Lightning. But even if half of these consumers pull through, the trucks are already sold out through 2023.

Ford recently began pre-production on the Lightning truck. It will be interesting to see where reservations land when sales begin in 2022.