Ford is no longer taking pre-orders from U.S. customers for the upcoming F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck. Canadian customers are still able to make reservations, but only have until the end of today to secure their spot in line.
The automaker revealed the closure in an update to the US version of their website this morning.
The ‘Reserve Now’ button has been replaced with ‘Get Updates’, and new wording has been added stating they have closed reservations in preparation for the orders book to open next month.
The same update has not yet happened in Canada. According to a memo sent to Canadian Ford dealers this morning, reservations are shutting down north of the border on December 9. (via Lightning Owners)
As communicated in the webcast , we are preparing to open the Lightning Order Bank in January 2022.
In preparation for order banks opening, we will be closing the Lightning reservation system on Dec. 9th.
The Dec. 3rd webcast identified key next steps regarding Lightning allocation, communication to reservation holders and timing. Please watch this webcast, if you have not done so already and stay tuned for a more detailed communication on this critical launch in mid December.
This is accurate as we were still able to launch the reservation form on Ford.ca.
Interestingly, the memo refers to a “webcast”, which Drive Tesla reported on last week. In that webcast, two Ford representatives stated Lightning order books were opening January 2022, which lines up with this latest statement.
However that same webcast also said F-150 Lightning production was slated to begin in June, followed by deliveries in September. This is several months later than the launch currently planned for “spring 2022.”
Ford later denied the claim, saying there was no change to the schedule.
As of the latest update from Ford last week, there are nearly 200,000 reservations for their first all-electric truck. They appear to have underestimated the demand as they have already more than doubled their initial production target, but it is still well below what is needed to make it through the backlog of orders in a timely fashion.
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