Ford Boosts F-150 EV Production By 50 Percent Due To Strong Interest

It's obvious that Ford has pulled all the stops when it comes to electrifying its lineup, especially its most popular nameplates. First, the Mustang, which now has a full-electric crossover version in the form of the Mustang Mach-E, arriving in showrooms next month. American's best-selling vehicle, the Ford F-150, will also be available in full-electric form by mid-2022. Just recently, the E-Transit has hit daylight, completing the first three Ford battery electric vehicles.

In fact, Ford announced that it spends more than $5 billion annually on engineering in the U.S., which includes the development of these three Blue Oval EVs.

In its release, the company also mentions the production increase of the F-150 EV. This is due to strong early interest shown by consumers since it was officially announced in September. By how much? The official release states that the increase will be 50 percent of the original plan.

In order to accommodate this, the automaker is adding 200 new jobs in Dearborn. That's on top of the previously added 300 jobs as part of the $700 million investment to its River Rouge manufacturing complex – all to ramp up the production of the first fully-electric F-150 truck.

"We are investing heavily in our vehicle programs as well as building out our manufacturing capabilities," said Hau Thai-Tang, chief product platform and operations officer. "This will allow us to scale quickly as customer interest in these new products grows."

In addition to EV production in Dearborn, Ford is also investing $1.35 billion in its Oakville Assembly Complex in Ontario, Canada. The money will be used to transform the plant to include next-generation battery-electric vehicles starting in 2024. This will be the first time that an automaker will be producing EVs in Canada for the North American market.

"Our electric vehicle business is a dynamic source of growth," says John Savona, vice president, North American manufacturing. "We’re setting ourselves up for profitable business now and in the future."