F-150 Lightning Pre-Production Officially Begins at Ford's Rouge EV Center After 150k Reservations!

[BennyTheBeaver]

Those certainly won't be on the finished trucks. I'm not sure what they are, but they look similar to the spots on motion capture suits for CGI characters in movies. Remember these are preproduction vehicles that will be used for various purposes. It's possible they will be scanning that unit with lasers to make sure panel fitment (in this case the front bumper) is as precise as they want it to be. The white dots would stand out the best on a unit painted black.

It's fun to speculate...

Those spots that look like motion capture dots might be used in a wind tunnel setting to see if there is any Flex on the front panels.

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[F150ROD]

How Ford is gonna do. They can't build my CIE pick-up. Ordered since march. I wonder that there is a lot of chips in a EV truck. So i probably have to wait for another year to own my F-150.

I honestly think it has less to do with chips and more to do with the dealer you placed your order with.

 

[Pioneer74]

A couple of good articles today from the two local Detroit newspapers.

Ford confirmed it will double production of the highly-anticipated 2022 Ford F-150 that will be built with a battery pack instead of a gas tank.

https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/ford/2021/09/16/ford-f-150-lightning-truck/8349536002/

The investments and jobs will be spread across three plants: the new Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn where the F-150 Lightning will be assembled; the Van Dyke Electric Powertrain Center in Sterling Heights that is ramping up production of electric motors and transaxles for electric vehicles; and the Rawsonville Components Plant in Ypsilanti, where workers will assemble battery packs for the Lightning.

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/b...crease-f-150-lightning-production/8347170002/

 

[SteffanG]

I mean I don't know specifically what the timeline was but we all got to be happy Ford is starting pre-production in mid-september. Remember while there are different parts to this lightning this is still on a regular F-150 frame.

Production is going to come down to chips and batteries, and at this point I don't see why people won't be driving these things in the springtime.

It isn't exactly the same as the ICE F150 frame - it is a lot more heavy duty and reinforced as it has to carry a 2000lb battery.

 

[Maxx]

I'm still convinced that the production capacity will be throttled by battery availability. Maybe it has been covered elsewhere here - but can the battery be installed after the truck is built? (i.e., ship these off the line to that land of trucks with missing parts?) It wasn't clear to me if the body has to be pulled off of the frame to access the pack.

I have a feeling battery shortage will not impact Pro production. It’s powertrain is designed to ensure it can meet the price target and it is immune to battery supply fluctuation. Here is a Ford Employee with additional load testing the range:

The cynical side of me says that the price of every trim package between the PRO SR and Platinum endpoints Ford will increase by $4500, because they didn't formally announce those.

we only have a reservation. We are not obligated to buy. If Ford try to take my incentive and add it to it’s bottom line either with price increase or by playing with options, I just make my EV purchase somewhere else.

 

[Galactus55]

For Ontario Canada Lightning Green Plates

You're very kucky in USA. Here in Canada, the base model start at $68,000.00 + 15% tx!!! No credit on ev. The limit price is 60,000.00 to get 8000.00 credit after the taxe is paid.

For Ontario Canada Lightning Green Plates
What I found out

See below screen shot for the MTO the Rivian qualifies for green plates. So this would imply the Ford F- 150 should qualify as well.
The only item that might be a problem is the added statement on the web site that said.
"The following vehicles are not eligible for Green Vehicle license plates:
Commercial vehicles weighing 3,000 kg or more "

Ford Lightning weight 2948 kg
Rivian R1T Truck Curb weight 2670 kg

We should be good. HOV lanes are a go!!!

 

[GABAR]

This is so cool.

Yes, Rivian might be the first to market but the Lightning is what most people are interested in.

 

[bfjeld]

What are all these pre production models for? More testing , more to send out for reservation holders events?
After testing miles and test rides they can’t really sell them as new so they must disassemble and “recycle” it to a new truck?
Send me a black platinum up here to Canada this winter and I will guinea pig it in the -30 Celsius winter!

 

[SteffanG]

What are all these pre production models for? More testing , more to send out for reservation holders events?
After testing miles and test rides they can’t really sell them as new so they must disassemble and “recycle” it to a new truck?
Send me a black platinum up here to Canada this winter and I will guinea pig it in the -30 Celsius winter!

Maybe if they produce quite a few pre-productions they might send them to dealers with a lot of reservations and allow people to test them out before committing to an order. Maybe this is why we haven't heard anything about order bank opening yet.
Ford did say on their podcast with InsideEV that they have an announcement every week for the next 3 weeks about EV cars (could be the Mach-E, Lightning, Etransit, or possibly a new EV)

 

[Pioneer74]

What are all these pre production models for? More testing , more to send out for reservation holders events?
After testing miles and test rides they can’t really sell them as new so they must disassemble and “recycle” it to a new truck?
Send me a black platinum up here to Canada this winter and I will guinea pig it in the -30 Celsius winter!

Range testing, crash testing, EPA testing and test units to validate individual components. The ones that survive will be crushed when they are done with them. None of the parts will make it to sellable units

 

[D-Pa]

What are all these pre production models for? More testing , more to send out for reservation holders events?
After testing miles and test rides they can’t really sell them as new so they must disassemble and “recycle” it to a new truck?
Send me a black platinum up here to Canada this winter and I will guinea pig it in the -30 Celsius winter!

Could they be for dealer showrooms...just guessing

 

[shutterbug]

Could they be for dealer showrooms...just guessing

No. The demo units eventually get sold to real customers. As @Pioneer74 said, pre-production units get destroyed.

 

[sotek2345]

Something to think about:

There are 3,005 Ford locations in the United States as of September 07, 2021. The state with the most number of Ford locations in the US is Texas, with 232 locations, which is 7% of all Ford locations in America.

https://www.scrapehero.com/location-reports/Ford Motor Company-USA/

Assuming once production begins, if (emphasize “IF”) every Ford dealer gets one 2022 Lightning mannequin for their showroom, that’s a significant number of units diverted from retail orders.

A little help for that is that only EV certified dealers would get a demo unit, so it drops the number to 2100.

 

[shutterbug]

Something to think about:

There are 3,005 Ford locations in the United States as of September 07, 2021. The state with the most number of Ford locations in the US is Texas, with 232 locations, which is 7% of all Ford locations in America.

https://www.scrapehero.com/location-reports/Ford Motor Company-USA/

Assuming once production begins, if (emphasize “IF”) every Ford dealer gets one 2022 Lightning mannequin for their showroom, that’s a significant number of units diverted from retail orders.

Whatever the number, those demo units (really hating the term mannequin) will be eventually sold to customers. So not really diverted.

 

[diesel97]

Whatever the number, those demo units (really hating the term mannequin) will be eventually sold to customers. So not really diverted.

So are you say every dealership got a GT500

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