Connect with us
ford f-150 lightning production increase ford f-150 lightning production increase

News

Ford’s project to triple F-150 Lightning production is complete

Credit: Ford

Published

on

Ford’s project to triple F-150 Lightning production is complete, as its Rouge Electric Vehicle Center (REVC) was expanded after a six-week manufacturing shutdown to make way for improvements.

Ford announced today that it has officially resumed production of the all-electric F-150 Lightning following a six-week shutdown that was an expansion and retooling of the REVC plant. The reason for the expansion and retooling was to triple production rates from 50,000 to 150,000 annual units.

By this fall, Ford expects to reach a production rate of 150,000 annualized units, it said.

Advertisement

Because of the shutdown, Ford said the REVC “is now ready to accelerate the ramp-up process to unlock supply and help meet demand for the truck.” By the end of the year, Ford expects to build more than 70,000 F-150 Lightning units “with production for U.S. customers expected to ramp in the fall.”

Debbie Manzano, Director of Manufacturing for Ford, commented on the REVC’s completed expansion:

“We are all looking forward to getting these F-150 Lightning trucks into the hands of our customers – from the U.S. to Norway. This milestone is the result of a lot of hard work and collaboration.”

The retooling Ford performed at the REVC now utilizes equipment to automatically measure and validate the exterior body fit for margin and flushness precision, the company said. This highlights an extreme focus on an improvement in build quality for the company, as Ford said it was its first North American production plant to receive the tools.

ford f-150 lightning production

Credit: Jim Farley | Twitter

Additionally, another station was added to validate wheel alignment and headlamp aim for driver assist technology.

The production ramp is a key part of Ford’s quest to meet production demand, especially when it comes to building the F-150 Lightning’s most sought-after trims, like the XLT, which accounts for 50 percent of new orders, the company said.

Advertisement

Recent price decreases have helped Ford reignite demand for its vehicles, as the company has seen a threefold increase in web traffic and a sixfold increase in customer orders thanks to these new, more accessible price points.

Ford F-150 Lightning sales up over 100% in Q2 2023 vs 2022

Martin Gjaja, Chief Customer Officer of Ford’s all-electric Model e unit, said:

“We have learned a lot from our first-ever EV truck customers, including a preference for technology and visual differentiation. We continue to refine the F-150 Lightning lineup to make the jump to an EV truck an easy choice for customers.”

Ford is hoping to continue gaining momentum on its EV push, and the production increase of the F-150 Lightning will help create a more accelerated “customer-focused transition to EV adoption.”

Advertisement

Joey has been a journalist covering electric mobility at TESLARATI since August 2019. In his spare time, Joey is playing golf, watching MMA, or cheering on any of his favorite sports teams, including the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles, Miami Heat, Washington Capitals, and Penn State Nittany Lions. You can get in touch with joey at joey@teslarati.com. He is also on X @KlenderJoey. If you're looking for great Tesla accessories, check out shop.teslarati.com

Advertisement
Comments

Elon Musk

Elon Musk reiterates shocking xAI detail, and hints at an upcoming monster

He also announced that xAI’s upcoming model, Grok 5, will begin training very soon.

Published

on

MINISTÉRIO DAS COMUNICAÇÕES, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Elon Musk has reiterated a rather shocking tidbit about xAI’s impressive scores at the ARC-AGI benchmark.

He also announced that xAI’s upcoming model, Grok 5, will begin training very soon.

xAI results on the ARC-AGI benchmark

In a recent post on social media platform X, Greg Kamradt, President of the ARC Prize Foundation, noted that Grok 4 has been used in two SOTA submissions to the ARC-AGI V1 and V2 benchmarks. The submissions, which were the best that the foundation has encountered to date, were done using xAI’s large language model, Grok 4. 

As per Kamradt, when asked about why the submissions were done using Grok 4, the authors stated that “It was the best model I used in testing.” Musk was evidently proud of this accomplishment, though he also highlighted that these accomplishments were attained with just Grok 4. This suggests that once Grok 5 is in the picture, xAI’s lead in the AI sector could become notable.

Grok 5 incoming

Elon Musk has shared a number of tidbits about Grok 5 as of late. In recent comments on X, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO stated that he believes Grok 5 has the potential to actually reach artificial general intelligence (AGI). This suggests that Grok 5 would be nothing short of a monster, as it could be capable of matching or surpassing human-level intelligence across tasks such as thinking, reasoning, and other domains by a substantial margin.

Advertisement

Grok 5 may also be coming soon. As per Musk in another post on X, xAI will be starting the training of Grok 5 in a few weeks. Musk definitely seems to be highly optimistic about the capabilities of Grok 5, with the CEO stating late last month that the update would be coming before the end of the year and that it will be “crushingly good.”

Continue Reading

News

SpaceX is partnering with chipmakers to enable Starlink satellite-to-cell service

President Gwynne Shotwell outlined the effort during a space industry conference in Paris.

Published

on

Credit: SpaceX/X

SpaceX is working with microchip manufacturers to integrate satellite-connectivity hardware into smartphones, advancing its plan for direct-to-device services through Starlink. 

The move follows the company’s $17 billion acquisition of wireless spectrum from EchoStar Corp., a deal that positions SpaceX to operate more independently of traditional telecom carriers. 

President Gwynne Shotwell outlined the effort during a space industry conference in Paris this week, as noted in a Bloomberg News report.

Starlink direct-to-device

Starlink currently serves millions of customers in over 100 countries, primarily through ground-based dishes. The company, however, is now expanding into satellite-to-cell service, which should enable unmodified phones to connect directly with orbiting satellites. While SpaceX has a partnership with T-Mobile US, the EchoStar spectrum purchase gives it more control to negotiate with global carriers on its own terms.

“We’re working with chip manufacturers to get the proper chips in phones,” the SpaceX President stated. “We will now be initiating discussions with telcos in a different way now. Now it’s our spectrum, but we want to work with them, almost providing capacity and wholesaling capacity to their customers.”

Advertisement

The company plans to launch satellites capable of supporting its direct-to-device business within two years, with early mobile phone testing expected by late 2026.

Starship program continues test flights

Shotwell also addressed SpaceX’s Starship program, which recently completed its 10th test flight in August. She said the mission met all objectives, providing a critical morale boost to teams after a challenging development year. 

“My Starship team needed that win,” Shotwell noted. “Development programs always are kind of a 24/7 operation, and I was really pleased for them.”

SpaceX is planning to fly one more iteration of the current Starship prototype, known as V2, before transitioning to the next-generation V3 vehicle. That version, expected to debut late this year or early 2026, is designed to be more capable and support eventual crewed missions to the Moon and Mars. 

“The V3, which we want to fly hopefully late this year, but maybe early next year, is really the vehicle that could take humans to the moon and Mars,” Shotwell stated.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Elon Musk

Elon Musk says xAI has a chance to reach AGI with Grok 5

The comment came after Grok 4 posted strong results on the ARC-AGI benchmark.

Published

on

xAI-supercomputer-memphis-environment-pushback
(Credit: xAI)

Elon Musk suggested this week that his artificial intelligence startup xAI has the potential to reach artificial general intelligence (AGI) with the next version of its large language model, Grok 5. 

The comment came after Grok 4 posted strong results on the ARC-AGI benchmark, which tests reasoning and problem-solving ability.

Musk sees Grok 5 as AGI candidate

In a post on X, user @amXFreeze shared the latest results of the ARC-AGI leaderboard, which showed Grok 4 outpacing rival systems such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT in problem-solving and open program synthesis tasks. 

Musk reacted to the performance by stating that “I now think xAI has a chance of reaching AGI with Grok 5. Never thought that before.” 

Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) refers to an AI system that is capable of matching or surpassing human-level intelligence across tasks such as thinking, reasoning, and other domains by a notable margin, as noted in a report from Benzinga. AI companies today are actively pursuing AGI.

Advertisement

xAI’s speed 

While xAI was only established in March 2023, the startup has grown aggressively. Since its founding, it has rapidly risen in the AI segment and its Grok large language model has become a mainstream option for everyday users, especially on social media platform X. The company is still growing aggressively, and it is currently expanding its Colossus supercomputer cluster in Memphis. 

During xAI’s Engineering Open House event in San Francisco in its early days, Elon Musk highlighted that speed would be the company’s primary competitive edge. To highlight this, Musk stated that “No SR-71 Blackbird was ever shot down and it only had one strategy: to accelerate.” So far, xAI is definitely playing this role very well. 

Continue Reading

Trending