Ford will reopen order books for the F-150 Lightning EV on May 9.
Production of the electric pickup truck resumed in mid-March following a month of pause caused by a battery issue that Ford wanted to isolate and address before it became a problem for customers.
Why the long delay of almost two months since production resumed, though? Well, it looks like the automaker has been facing another production challenge after the battery fire issue.
A source told Reuters that Ford can't build enough F-150 Lightning trucks due to missing door handles caused by a supplier hiccup. Ford confirmed the issue in a statement issued to the news agency last week.
"While a supplier part shortage is affecting some of our North American plants, we expect to make up all of the production that is impacted."
The automaker said on May 5 that it will open orders for the F-150 Lightning this week as part of its plan to scale to annual production of 150,000 units by the end of this year. That said, it remains unclear how long customers will have to wait for the delivery of new orders.
Gallery: 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning customers from across the United States
Interestingly, Ford may also adjust F-150 Lightning prices when it starts taking orders again tomorrow.
According to a dealer bulletin shared by the Lightning Owners forum, Ford has a price update scheduled on the same day. Will the automaker cut F-150 Lightning prices after several price hikes in recent months?
One can only hope, but the truth is Ford doesn't have any real incentive to lower F-150 Lightning prices because it has no direct competition at the moment in the EV pickup space other than the Rivian R1T – with the important mention that the adventure truck only competes with high-end Lightning trims.
It's going to take a while before Ford sees direct competition from Chevrolet and Ram in the form of the Silverado EV and 1500 REV, expected to start deliveries in fall 2023 and Q4 2024, respectively.
The Tesla Cybertruck may arrive on the market before these two models, but it remains to be seen how it will be priced compared to the F-150 Lightning and whether the eccentric model can be considered a direct competitor for Ford's conventional truck.
