In Ford‘s recent Q3 earnings report, it revealed that 75 percent of Ford Lightning reservations are from customers who are new to the brand. That’s an estimated 112,500 out of 150,000 reservations. In a business where brand loyalty is common, especially with pickup trucks, that’s a rare sight. The automaker’s announcement shows that a high-quality electric truck at an affordable price is enough to win people over. We’re curious how many of those new customers are switching from another truck brand, and how many have never owned a truck before. If a person’s primary reason for not owning a truck is fuel economy, the Ford Lightning would be the answer. Still, it’s pretty amazing that new Ford customers make up over half of all Ford Lightning reservations.

Why do new customers want a Ford Lightning?

The new Ford Lightning is everything someone could want from a pickup truck. It’s safe, has plenty of luxury features, and doesn’t cost money at the station. It’s even surprisingly capable. When most people hear about an electric truck, they assume it’ll lack payload capacity and towing capability. The opposite is actually true, the Lightning can tow up to 10,000 pounds, and haul 2,000 pounds inside the bed and frunk.

It has plenty of extra cargo space thanks to the frunk. It also has cool attention-grabbing features like turning into a generator that can power the owner’s home for a few days. The entire truck can be used as a generator, whether in an emergency or just on a job site. Ford even promises an EPA estimated range of 230 miles with an extended range option of 300 miles on a single charge.

Is Ford still selling a lot of trucks?

Sales for every automaker, including Ford, are down over the last year or so. The semiconductor chip shortage led to a serious lack of new vehicle inventory for everyone. It also made it so customers preorder vehicles that didn’t show up for months on end. In September, 31 percent of Ford’s retail sales came from filling customers’ reservations. A great way to get back to selling the most trucks in America is having the inventory available to sell.

That’s exactly what Ford called itself for September 2021, the best-selling automaker in America. It sold 156,614 total units, with 83,554 being trucks. When the fully electric Lightning becomes available, we expect them to be selling out everywhere just as the Bronco has. At least until the semiconductor chip shortage is finally in the past, but who knows how long that could take.

Can Ford make enough Lightning models to fill orders?

Ford recently announced it is investing $11.4 billion in electric F-Series trucks and battery production. It’s opening a few different locations to produce these products, one of which is the Tenessee mega campus. This campus will have 6,000 employees and cost $5.6 billion just to build. Titled “Blue Oval City”, the plant will produce the Ford F-150 Lightning as well as electric heavy-duty trucks in the future. Production on these products will begin in 2025.

Ford also committed to creating two other plants in Kentucky, specifically for producing batteries. Battery production is one of the more costly parts of electric vehicle production, so Ford is putting another $5.8 billion into these Kentucky plants. A huge investment, but the automaker knows it has to be prepared for the demand for electric trucks, which customers have already shown is massive.

The Ford F-150 Lightning will be available in 2022 and starts at just $39,974. Ford’s massive number of reservations for the vehicle shows just how interesting it looks. Even more telling of this is that 75 percent of all those reservations are from people who are not current Ford customers. New-to-the-brand customers are considered a massive win in the automotive sales industry, so the Ford F-150 Lightning is doing its job.