Shoppers interested in a Ford F-150 Lightning no longer need a reservation to place an order, the company says.
Ford “is on track to increase production of the F-150 Lightning at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center this fall to reduce customer wait times,” the company says. The increased production means there is now “no reservation needed for retail orders.”
For the high-demand XLT model, Ford says, buyers who place an order today can expect to receive their truck “as early as September.”
Ford says it “continues to accept retail customer orders” for the higher-end Lariat and Platinum models but hasn’t provided a time estimate on those. Ford has closed orders for the base-model Lightning Pro for the current model year.
The Lightning is the first electric truck from a mainstream automaker to reach the market. Ford accepted a huge backlog of orders when it launched – at one point saying it had sold three years’ worth of trucks – and had to enact a phased reservation system that let customers place orders in waves.
But the company has spooled up production, and customers can now order without a reservation online or in a dealership.
The Lightning is one of several Ford products where demand exceeds supply.
Shoppers interested in the Mustang Mach-E electric SUV have frequently faced long wait times since its launch. Ford CEO Jim Farley recently warned shoppers the company probably can’t build enough Maverick small trucks to meet demand in the 2024 model year.
