Ford CEO Confirms Second Electric Pickup, Likely to Launch in 2025
The unnamed truck will be built at Ford’s new Blue Oval City in Tennessee.
Ford has officially launched production of its first electric pickup: the hotly anticipated F-150 Lightning. On Tuesday, the automaker held an event at the Lightning's home—the newly redone Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, Michigan—to celebrate. Ford CEO Jim Farley had a little more to share, though, about the manufacturer's upcoming Blue Oval City plant in Tennessee, as well as what it'll build there.
A different electric pickup truck "that's different than" the Lightning will be manufactured there, where Ford already confirmed it'll produce "next-generation electric F-Series" pickups.
"I wish we could bring you all down there," said Jim Farley while addressing attendees. "But we're already pushing dirt down in Blue Oval City in Tennessee for another electric pickup truck that's different than this one."
The space he's referring to is an enormous six-square-mile campus being built in Stanton, Tennessee. The $5.6 billion project promises to create around 6,000 jobs and "reimagine" how vehicles are built. Apparently, that all starts with pickup trucks, Ford's bread and butter. The more important question is: what truck is Jim Farley talking about?
Recent chatter of a light-duty truck partnership with Volkswagen suggests the possibility of some quasi-compact pickup being built at the location. And since Ford already has the Maverick, it seems unlikely that it would introduce another model to compete in that class.
Or, perhaps Ford is going in the opposite direction. Indeed, one of its goals for Blue Oval City is to build an expanded lineup of electric F-Series vehicles. It's not yet clear if Ford intends to ship production of the F-150 Lightning to the campus, but based on the CEO's wording, it appears that something else could be coming. Maybe an electric Super Duty?
Farley confirmed that Ford is planning to build around two million electric vehicles over the next two years, with every intention of becoming the world's number one electric pickup maker.
"With the huge investments—$50 billion in EVs, battery manufacturing, and our expanded lineup which you have not seen yet—we plan to challenge Tesla and all comers to become the top EV maker in the world," said Farley. "That's something no one would have believed just two years ago from us."
Look for this next electric truck to go into production in 2025, which is when BlueOval City is planned to go online.
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