EXCLUSIVE: Ford Says Fleet Demand For E-Transit, F-150 Lightning Pro Is High, Expects Them To Be Quickly Sold Out

Ford Motor Co F told Benzinga on Tuesday it is seeing high fleet demand for its commercial electric vehicles E-Transit and the F-150 Lightning Pro and expects the models to sell out quickly.

What Happened: The electric variant of Ford’s commercial van Transit is expected to go on sale early next year while the fleet-oriented F-150 Lightning Pro is scheduled to begin deliveries in spring 2022.

Reservations for both the E-Transit and the F-150 Lightning Pro started in May this year. 

Ford has previously said the E-Transit will go on sale at a targeted price of $43,295 and the F-150 Lightning Pro will be priced $39,974 onwards, before any incentives. 

The fleet-oriented vehicles would be delivered from Ford Pro, a separate unit that focuses on commercial customers of all sizes.

See Also: Ford Says Nearing 200,000 F-150 Lightning Reservations, Order Bank Opening Soon

Ford did not provide a breakout of fleet orders but told Benzinga it is currently not separating commercial volume expectations from the total numbers.

Ford Pro has previously said it expects annual U.S. industry sales of full-size all-electric trucks and vans in the commercial and government segments to be over 300,000 units by 2030.

The Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford had earlier this month said F-150 Lightning has secured nearly 200,000 bookings and the order bank is expected to open soon. The automaker had in September revealed 24,000 reservations for the E-Transit. 

Ford plans to ramp up production for the F-150 Lightning electric truck and build 15,000 F-150s next year after the truck's spring launch, 55,000 in 2023 and eventually reach the 80,000 mark in 2024.

Ford in November said production for E-Transit would begin before the end of the year. 

See Also: Ford's 160,000 Reservations Number For F-150 Lightning Doesn't Include Fleet Orders

Why It Matters: Ford is expecting the popularity of its most-sold and the most-profitable full-size pickup truck F-150 and Transit commercial vans to trickle down to its electric variants as well and help it compete with electric-vehicle market leader Tesla Inc. TSLA

For perspective, the F-150 alone contributed over 27% of Ford’s total production in 2020 and 7% for the Transit commercial vans, as per company data.

Farley had in May this year told investors the automaker plans to electrify its most iconic models and reconfirmed the plans to launch a commercial self-driving business by 2022.

Price Action: Ford shares closed about 1% higher at $19.6 a share on Tuesday.