Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) has made the first delivery of its electric pickup truck, the F-150 Lighting to a retail customer in Standish, Michigan. The owner, who was identified as Nicholas Schmidt, is not surprisingly already an electric vehicle enthusiast. He owns a Tesla Model 3, has a booking for the Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) Cybertruck, and also considered the Rivian R1T.
“When there were pickup trucks coming out that were going to be EVs, I said, ‘whichever one comes first, I’ll buy it,’” Schmidt told Bloomberg.
The Cybertruck, which debuted in November 2019 (with an exciting window-shattering finale), has reportedly received over 1 million reservations but its production has been delayed to 2023 due to chip shortages.
Ford, meanwhile, enjoyed a shorter period from debut to delivery, as the F-150 Lightning was only introduced last year. The Detroit automaker reports that the 2022 model has now completely sold out. They also initially said that it received over 2 million reservations.
The automaker is gearing up to go head to head with Tesla, with plans to invest about US$20 billion to push its EV division in the next few years. They reported in late April that they’ve also already started working on a second pickup truck. A truck that Ford CEO Jim Farley said would be different from the F-150 Lightning.
The second EV truck, which likely will be a mid-size version after the full-size F-150, will be built at Ford’s new $5.6 billion BlueOval City manufacturing complex in Stanton, Tennessee.
Information for this briefing was found via Bloomberg, Twitter and the sources mentioned. The author has no securities or affiliations related to the organizations discussed. Not a recommendation to buy or sell. Always do additional research and consult a professional before purchasing a security. The author holds no licenses.
