Ford increases production of Lightning F-150 electric truck

Ford Motor on Tuesday started regular production of its F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck.

Ford workers, top executives, and a group of F-150 Lightning consumers joined a party at the automaker’s Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, Michigan, marking the sharp acceleration of the assembly system.

The automaker has been building Lightnings for several weeks, parking them in lots around its headquarters in Dearborn.

The automaker had planned to build just 40,000 Lightning trucks every year, but the increasing demand for electric vehicles urged the automaker to boost planned production twice since last August.

The automaker has geared up a new part of its Rouge complex for building 150,000 of the heavily modified version of its best-selling F-150 pickup truck every year.

About 200,000 customers had made reservations for the Lightning before the automaker cut off taking preliminary orders in December.