Ford Boosts Electric F-150 Production Plans - Confirms Mustang Mach-E Sibling

Ford's all-electric F-150 may still be more than a year away from launch, but the automaker is already increasing production plans based on what it says has been "strong early interest" for the plug-in pickup. Details of the F-150 EV are still in short supply, but just the confirmation in September alone that it was on the Ford roadmap was enough to indicate big changes are coming.

Production of the electric truck will begin in time for its commercial launch in mid-2022, Ford has said, with assembly taking place at the automaker's new Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, Michigan. It'll follow the new Ford E-Transit, an electric version of the best-selling van.

That, Ford says, will be officially shown off for the first time later this week, on Thursday. Deliveries, however, won't be until late 2021, with production set to start next year at the company's upgraded Kansas City plant. Despite neither that nor F-150 EV building starting yet, though, Ford has already cranked up its expectations.

"Given the strong early interest in Ford's all-electric F-150 since the September announcement, Ford is now increasing production plans by 50 percent versus original plans," the company said today. "To deliver more fully electric trucks, Ford will add 200 new jobs in addition to the 300 jobs previously announced for the new electric F-150."

With those two models on the commercial side, Ford is also looking to build out its consumer vehicles. The 2021 Mustang Mach-E electric crossover is due to arrive in dealerships from next month, marking the expansion of the Mustang brand into compact SUVs for the first time, but it'll soon spawn a sibling.

Set to be produced alongside the Mustang Mach-E, the "additional electrified vehicle" will roll off the line in the automaker's Cuautitlan, Mexico plant. "The new vehicle will share a similar electrified platform as the Mustang Mach-E," Ford says, "delivering manufacturing and engineering efficiencies."

Chatter of a smaller Mustang Mach-E version has been circulating for some time, with Ford said to be seeing the potential of such an EV for markets where the initial crossover may still be considered large. Almost a year ago, rumors suggested that Ford was weighing VW's electric vehicle platform to underpin the "baby Mustang Mach-E" so as to streamline production. Today's announcement would seem to indicate that such a tie-up isn't, in fact, happening, and that the second model will borrow the homegrown architecture that Ford developed for its electric crossover.