Ford (NYSE:F) CEO Jim Farley said Thursday that interest in the automaker’s soon-to-launch F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck is so great that it had to stop taking reservations.
"We are completely oversubscribed with our battery electric vehicles, Lightning especially," Farley told the media Friday.
"We had to stop reservations we got so many," Farley added. "We stopped at 200,000, and those are orders. Hard orders."
Farley said Ford is pushing full production capacity at "70,000 or 80,000 units" for the Lightning, the all-electric version of America’s decades-long best-selling F-series pickup truck.
In an interview with Automotive News last month, he said he plans to increase EV production capacity to 600,000 units globally by 2023. He expects that would make Ford the number-two electric-vehicle maker, presumably behind Tesla but possibly General Motors (NYSE:GM), which plans to sell one million electric vehicles globally by 2025.
Farley also said Ford needs batteries for its EVs more than semiconductors. "The issue is batteries. That’s what we have to solve."
He said it’s too early to tell what Ford might do with its "over $10 billion" stake in newly public Rivian Automotive (NASDAQ:RIVN) He also commented on Ford’s plan to reinstate its regular dividend in the fourth quarter. "We had to start somewhere. Ten cents is a good place to start."
Farley was promoted from chief operating officer to the top job, in October of last year. The stock has soared since then, gaining nearly 200% as of Wednesday’s closing price of $19.81. Shares opened Friday morning up 63 cents, or 3.2%, to $20.21.
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