Ford Increasing Maverick Production In Response To Strong Customer Demand

[NextTruck]

FORD INCREASING PRODUCTION OF POPULAR ELECTRIC, GAS, HYBRID VEHICLES IN RESPONSE TO STRONG CUSTOMER DEMAND

MAR 3, 2023 | DEARBORN

• Ford is boosting production of its popular EVs – Mustang Mach-E®, F-150® LightningTM and E-TransitTM – along with other customer favorites like Bronco® Sport and Maverick®
• Ford’s Kansas City Assembly Plant will add a third crew in April to increase production of the best-selling Transit and E-Transit vans
• In addition to production increases, Ford is studying ways to boost output at Dearborn Truck Plant to meet continued strong demand for the gas and PowerBoostTM hybrid models of the F-150. Ford F-Series is America’s best-selling truck for 46 consecutive years

DEARBORN, Mich., March 3, 2023 – Ford is increasing production at manufacturing plants across North America to meet strong customer demand for vehicles including Mustang Mach-E, F-150 Lightning, Bronco Sport and Maverick. The company is also preparing to launch all-new versions of four significant vehicles in 2023: Super Duty®, Ranger®, Mustang® and Escape®.

“We have had a strong start to 2023 sales and we are moving to fast-track quality production,” said Kumar Galhotra, president, Ford Blue. “Increasing production benefits both our customers and our business.”

Through February, Ford is America’s No. 1 selling overall brand as well as the top truck manufacturer and SUV brand. Ford electric vehicle sales are up 68 percent.

In February, Ford’s U.S. market share increased by 1.4 percentage points to 13.3 percent, powered by a 21.9 percent sales increase.

Mustang Mach-E: Ford began increasing production of the Mustang Mach-E this week. Changes at the plant will allow Ford to nearly double its hourly production and bring its annual manufacturing run rate to a targeted 210,000 units by years’ end.

Mustang Mach-E helped propel Ford to No. 2 in U.S. EV sales in 2022, and is bringing new customers to Ford, with more than two-thirds of customers coming from other makes.

Bronco Sport and Maverick: Ford is increasing production for Bronco Sport and Maverick. Production is targeted to increase by more than 80,000 units this year, helping to meet demand in both North and South America. In the U.S., Ford brand SUV sales totaled 777,770, up 4.6% in 2022 versus 2021, led by the Bronco family of vehicles. Maverick was the No. 1 small truck in America in 2022.

F-150 Lightning: In Michigan, production of the F-150 Lightning at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center is on track to triple this year, targeting an annual production run rate of 150,000 by the end of 2023. The F-150 Lightning, the best-selling electric truck in the U.S., had sales of 3,600 through February, in addition to the 15,617 sales recorded in 2022. F-150 Lightning production will resume March 13. Overall, for the F-150 Lightning production increase, Ford is investing $2 billion across three plants in Michigan and adding 3,200 union jobs.

Transit and E-Transit: Also adding an additional crew in April is Kansas City Assembly Plant, which manufactures the Transit and the E-Transit vans, America’s best-selling gas and electric vans in 2022. Ford is targeting an annual production increase of 38,000. Ford is investing $95 million and adding 1,100 union jobs as part of the production increase. Ford is America’s best-selling commercial van maker for 45 straight years.

F-150 and F-150 PowerBoost: Ford is also looking at ways to increase production at the Dearborn Truck Plant of the F-150 gas and hybrid trucks to meet continued strong demand. The F-Series holds the title of America’s best-selling truck for 46 consecutive years.

Is this new information or just restating the report of a 3rd shift this summer at Hermosilo??

Sponsored

 

[Brent Karrett]

LOL, sure Ford . . . this Sunday will mark 500 days since I placed my order, maybe this means I'll be scheduled for production sometime before it rolls over in to a 2024 Maverick?

i decontented my loaded Lariat EB down to a base XLT hybrid and received it mid jan. Just an FYI.

 

[Huchipapa]

My brother’s been trying to order a Transit cargo for the last 6 months to no avail. Perhaps he’ll be able to now.

 

[Grumpa]

I mean, they took all the orders for the entire 2023 model year five months ago -- so not a shocker.

It took me 504 days to get my Maverick.

WoW! Good luck!

 

[Allen King Jr]

Additional 80k Mavericks, they better be all hybrids, even then I don't think they will catch up.

 

[Traegorn]

WoW! Good luck!

Took. Past tense. Took it home a couple of weeks ago.

 

[Onceforall]

I think it is 80,000 for both. Assuming a 50-50 split, that is 40,000 more Mavericks. At the 35-65 ratio, that is 14,000 more hybrids and 26,000 more EBs. So, enough extra capacity to make all of the EB retail orders over again and to build half of the current hybrid overage.

I think it more likely that all 80,000 will be Maverick, due to the 3rd shift being added. My take on this is that there is one shift for each model, the 3rd shift will be dedicated to the Mav line.

Also, the Bronco Sport sales are greatly slowing down. There are tons of BS's sitting on dealer lots right now. Ford needs to do something to push these out.

 

[Grumpa]

I think it more likely that all 80,000 will be Maverick, due to the 3rd shift being added. My take on this is that there is one shift for each model, the 3rd shift will be dedicated to the Mav line.

Also, the Bronco Sport sales are greatly slowing down. There are tons of BS's sitting on dealer lots right now. Ford needs to do something to push these out.

Let's hope the new hires know what they are doing! If not Fix Or Repair Daily!

 

[sprcoop]

i decontented my loaded Lariat EB down to a base XLT hybrid and received it mid jan. Just an FYI.

I get a kick out of folks that let us know when they received their Maverick but fail to document when it was ordered. I think that is an important piece of the puzzle.

 

[colinl]

The truth is that since the prices for the Lightning have increased so much, that many people are not taking delivery or their vehicle, nor planning to complete the order process when their slot in Line finally comes up. I have a friend that reserved four Lightnings when they were only $40k. Than crickets from Ford. Finally bought one off a lot for around $80K and declined two others at the dealer that were $90-100k range and had been sitting their for weeks at MSRP. Likely will not order his reserved four at the current price points either. And he is not the only one.

I am confident that consumers are becoming better educated and seeing the very numerous reports, both by media as well as consumers, that electric trucks have abysmal range when towing.

That surely is having an impact on demand. I for sure would rather tow with a $70k F-150 Powerboost than a $100K Lightning. 30.6 gallons gives 300 mile range max towing at 10mpg. Lighter load if you can get to 20 mpg (unladen it does 26) you've over 600 mile range, while a Lightning maybe can do 150 before stopping 45-90 minutes to charge.

___

Regarding the Maverick, it's very exciting to hear they are increasing production capacity. Now, if they would just go ahead and release an ST or some kind of performance version, I'd be pretty happy.

 

[athertonbt]

I think it more likely that all 80,000 will be Maverick, due to the 3rd shift being added. My take on this is that there is one shift for each model, the 3rd shift will be dedicated to the Mav line.

Also, the Bronco Sport sales are greatly slowing down. There are tons of BS's sitting on dealer lots right now. Ford needs to do something to push these out.

I don't think people are dying to get into that 1.5L 3-cylinder tbh.

 

[richman555]

I get a kick out of folks that let us know when they received their Maverick but fail to document when it was ordered. I think that is an important piece of the puzzle.

Or Ford can just be openly transparent about it. Like we have 500,000 orders and we have delivered X many and tell us this progress every month. This way, even though you are waiting, you can feel progress is being made.

 

[richman555]

I don't think people are dying to get into that 1.5L 3-cylinder tbh.

I agree with you there. You have to go with the Badlands trim to get the more powerful 4 cylinder engine. I do however see a lot of Bronco Sports in the wild in my area.

 

[JimParker256]

I get a kick out of folks that let us know when they received their Maverick but fail to document when it was ordered. I think that is an important piece of the puzzle.

And I get a kick out of all the "I ordered my truck in 2021, and am still waiting." Nope - that 9/21 order was either rolled over by Ford, or was cancelled and re-entered on Sept 15th, 2022 by the dealer - just like everybody else. So unless the dealership did the right thing and prioritized that order as a 10 and set everyone else's priority as lower than that, you're back in the "pool" with everybody else... Long McAurthur did it right. Maybe a couple of others. But both of the dealerships where I ordered automatically placed my order as a priority 10.

Please note that I'm not saying those orders SHOULDN'T have been prioritized above all the new orders - Ford absolutely SHOULD have done that. I'm just saying that Ford left it up to the dealers, many of whom did NOT do that properly. Thus, unless you had a "rollover" order, you no longer have a 9/21 order date...

 

[MiMav]

Let's hope the new hires know what they are doing! If not Fix Or Repair Daily!

I'm hoping to get mine before the 3rd shift starts up. I certainly wouldn't want one from the first week of the 3rd shift.

Sponsored