‘Sky is the limit for Ford Motor this year’

Shares of Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) jumped more than 10% on Tuesday after the legacy automaker doubled its annual production plans for its upcoming fully electric pickup truck, the F-150 Lightning.  

Demand for the electric F-150 Lightning remains incredibly strong

It’s the second time that Ford has been made to ramp up production capacity for the F-150 Lightning. Initially, it aimed for 40,000 units per year, which was later doubled to 80,000 and now to 150,000 by mid-2023.

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The announcement speaks to incredible demand for Ford’s upcoming electric pickup truck. The Detroit automaker had to quit taking preorders for the F-150 Lightning after reservations hit 200,000 in December.

According to Kumar Galhotra – Ford’s president for the Americas, the company will be taking orders for the electric pickup truck from Thursday. On CNBC’s “Squawk Box”, he said:

On Thursday, folks who’ve made reservations can start converting them into orders. There was such a long backlog, so more and more folks in waves can start placing their orders. As we increase capacity, there’ll be more room for new customers to place reservations as well.

Ford was the best performing stock in the auto industry last year

Ford closed 2021 with an about 140% gain; better than any other stock in the auto industry, including General Motors and Tesla. Also on Tuesday, Jim Cramer said Ford CEO Jim Farley was ahead of Elon Musk.

Farley has done a remarkable job. He’s ahead of Musk when it comes to the electric pickup truck. Ford won’t have any problem getting chips because they can prioritise all the expense to these. That’s why sky is the limit for Ford this year.

Ford has made it clear in recent months that it plans on competing head-on with Tesla Inc in the EV space.