Ford Vows to Boost Production Through Rest of 2023

Following an extended production pause of the all-electric Lightning pickup, Ford has signaled its intention to boost production through the rest of 2023 – especially when it comes to its most in-demand models. While it’s undoubtedly wise for Blue Oval to ensure it can build enough vehicles to satisfy demand, the automaker is also trying to turn around any perceptions that it might be falling behind with EVs. Meanwhile, Ford is providing itself with an opportunity to preemptively dunk on General Motors after news broke that the rival automaker would walk back full-size pickup production to “ maintain optimal inventory levels.”

The models Ford plans on focusing upon include the aforementioned F-150 Lightning, Mustang Mach-E, Bronco Sport, and Maverick pickup.

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

Ford said it has already made changes that would increase volumes of the electrified Mach-E the company still references as a Mustang. The company suggested that the plant would be able to nearly double its hourly production through the rest of 2023 and is targeting 210,000 units by the end of the year.

While production of the F-150 Lightning has been idled for a couple of weeks, manufacturing is slated to resume on March 13th with Ford hoping to deliver 150,000 annually this year. For reference, the company only managed to build about 15,500 units in 2022. However, that was also the pickup’s introductory year and one that was absolutely riddled with automakers bemoaning supply chain issues.

Volumes of the Bronco Sport and Maverick are also slated to increase since they’re two of the brand’s latest and most popular models. Ford said it’s only planning on building an extra 80,000 units for 2023, saying that it should help meet demand for both North and South America. How that’ll be broken down between the models is likely TBD and the automaker has other obligations to consider.

From Ford:

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.

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.

There’s a lot of marketing talk in the release. But that’s kind of the point. Ford really wants people to forget about the highly publicized factory shutdowns and learn that volume targets are going up for 2023. The timing of the announcement is likewise a shot at GM, which (like a lot of automakers) has suggested the best path forward involves keeping inventories tighter. Whether or not that ends up being true in the long run, consumers have begun to signal that they’ve lost patience with the state of the economy and how the industry has operated these last few years. Ford may be able to come out of this looking a little better than GM, by simply suggesting that it will try to ramp up production.

[Image: Nick Shoe/Shutterstock]

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