Ford Delivers First F-150 Lightning to a Michigan - Edges Rivals in the EV Truck Race

The highly anticipated F-150 Lightning has made its first delivery to a rural Michigan man, becoming the very first person to receive Ford's brand new car in the nation, according to a report by Bloomberg.

Outrunning Rivals

The man who received the first new car is Nicholas Schmidt. He is the chief technology officer of a grid optimization startup, who also took the delivery on Thursday of a silver electric truck at Richardson Ford, a dealership found in the small town of Standish, Michigan.

Bloomberg's report noted that Schmidt has a Tesla Model and placed a deposit for one of the company's Cybertrucks. He also considered buying a Rivian R1T truck and said that his wife was glad that the F-1500 Lightning was the first to be delivered.

Ford is banking on its fast delivery, years of production, and a huge network of dealerships as it aims to outrun its rivals in the race to deliver electric trucks to the most people.

It is worth noting that for the last 40 years, the F-150 has been the best-selling vehicle in the U.S., and trucks are one of the top-selling vehicles in the country as well, according to The Verge

Ford's electrified F-series is looking to drive more customers to encourage them to switch to Electric Vehicles (EVS) even though Rivian was the very first company to bring electric trucks to the market.

Tesla, which is Ford's biggest competition, revealed the Tesla Cybertruck back in 2019, but the production has not been successful so far since it has been constantly delayed. The production of the trucks is expected to start by 2023 at the earliest.

EV Truck Race

Ford's F-150 Lightning was surely fast as the speed of lightning as its first delivery could be a significant advantage while its rival companies are still producing their EV trucks.

Although General Motors has already started delivering its premium Hummer EV truck earlier this year, the price of the vehicle is almost three times the price of Ford's EV truck, so the vehicles do not fall under one category.

But General Motors' Chevy Silverado EV could be compared to Lightning, which is likely to be more affordable, although its production is set to start next year, while Stellantis' Ram 1500 truck's release date has not been announced.

This means that Ford is currently in the first place in the EV race.

However, Ford will still face some challenges along the road. The planned number of electric F-150s for production has been on a changing target. Ford was targeting 40,000 vehicles a year and told suppliers that it could increase to 80,000 by next year. However, the target has now jumped to 150,000 trucks by mid-2023.

Ford is currently using a "wave-by-wave reservation process" to notify customers when they can be online to spec on the Lightning model. The company had already stopped taking reservations after collecting $200,000 refundable $100 deposits for the EV truck when it was launched in May 2020.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Joaquin Victor Tacla