American legacy automaker Ford has just announced plans to cut the intended production of the F-150 Lightning electric pickup by half in 2024, Automotive News reported on Monday, citing a memo to suppliers.
The move is apparently part of the automaker’s efforts to ensure that the model’s production will correspond to demand.
“We’ll continue to match production with customer demand.”
Ford spokeswoman
New production plans
Ford’s plan to impose a 50% production cut for the F-150 Lightning in 2024 significantly deviates from its EV plant capacity expansion this year.
The legacy automaker reportedly informed suppliers about its new plans to produce about 1,600 F-150 Lightning units each week at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Michigan starting in January 2024.
For reference, Ford previously set a weekly production target of roughly 3,200 F-150 Lightning units.
The news followed the recent company announcement to delay the planned $12 billion electric vehicle investment, CNBC noted.
Demand issues
As per the memo, Ford decided to significantly lower the F-150 Lightning’s planned weekly production output due to “changing market demand.”
Recent reports suggest that demand for electric vehicles has been slower than the industry anticipated amid the increasing prices and interest rates.
These factors played a crucial role in Ford’s decision to cut EV production costs and reevaluate plans for the coming years.
However, it must be noted that the overall electric industry continues to progress. It even surpassed the 1 million unit threshold in the US for the first time this year.
It’s just that the growth seems to fall short of the automakers’ expectations, which caused them to reduce production.
F-150 Lightning sales (Nov 2023 and YTD)
Ford’s F-150 Lightning sales steadily grew this year, even hitting a new monthly record of about 4,400 units in November.
This year to date, the model sold a total of 20,365 units. It indicated a significant year-on-year increase of 54%.
In hindsight, Ford managed to expand the F-150 Lightning’s annual production capacity to 150,000 earlier this year.
Now, Ford seems to worry that it cannot secure enough customers to buy that huge number of electric pickups. The arrival of the new Tesla Cybertruck can also further weaken demand for Ford’s F-150 Lightning in the coming years.
