Ford halts reservations for F-150 Lightning electric trucks owing to high demand

• Ford CEO told CNBC that the company received too many subscriptions for the F-150 Lightning pickup truck

• “We stopped at 200,000, and those are orders,” he said.

On Thursday, Ford Motor CEO Jim Farley said that the automaker had to stop taking reservations for its soon-to-be-launched F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck after receiving too many subscriptions.

In an interview with CNBC, Farley said, “We are completely oversubscribed with our battery electric vehicles, Lightning especially. We had to stop reservations we got so many. We stopped at 200,000, and those are orders. Hard orders.”

In September, Ford had said that it received more than 150,000 reservations for the vehicle, which is scheduled to go on sale next spring, since its debut in May. This was an increase from 120,000 at the end of July.

READ MORE: Ford to boost hiring to double production of all-electric F-150

The automaker has invested nearly $950 million in the production of F-150—starting at about $40,000—and a hybrid version of the truck.

CNBC reported that in an interview with Automotive News last month, Farley announced Ford’s plans to increase EV production capacity to 600,000 units globally by 2023. CNBC reported that the projection would make Ford the No. 2 EV maker, presumably behind Tesla but possibly General Motors, which plans to sell 1 million electric vehicles globally by 2025.

In September, Ford announced that it was partnering with electric battery manufacturing start-up, Redwood Materials on closed-loop domestic battery recycling and increasing the production of the F-150 Lightning pickup in Dearborn, Michigan, starting next year.

ALSO READ: Ford partners with battery recycling startup to recycle EV batteries

Ford sold 175,918 vehicles in October amid an ongoing semiconductor chip shortage. Along with a drop in car sales, Ford also reported a 7% drop in truck sales to 94,449.

Despite the shortfall in sales, October’s sales have been the automaker’s best sales by volume since April. 

READ MORE: Ford reports best sales volume since April in October despite 4% drop

Picture Credits: CNBC

Inputs from CNBC