DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. on Wednesday stopped taking reservations for the upcoming F-150 Lightning electrical pickup because it prepares to open its order financial institution for the truck subsequent month.

Ford CEO Jim Farley advised Automotive Information final month that reservations for the pickup had been “approaching 200,000 items.” A spokeswoman on Wednesday echoed that very same determine with out giving a extra exact quantity.

The spokeswoman confirmed the tip of the Lightning reservation system after a Ford buyer who discovered the information from a vendor shared it on an F-150 discussion board earlier Wednesday.

Ford has not stated what number of Lightnings it’s going to construct initially, though it plans to ramp as much as an annual fee of 80,000 in 2024, the automobile’s second full yr of manufacturing.

It is potential that not all reservation holders will obtain a 2022 mannequin yr automobile.

Ford plans to implement a “waved invitation method” to transform reservations to orders at staggered dates starting in January, the spokeswoman stated. It is unclear what number of waves there will likely be or what number of clients will likely be a part of every wave.

“The variety of waves will likely be adjusted all through the method based mostly on out there commodities and buyer order charges from every earlier wave,” a spokeswoman stated in a press release. “Invites to order a 22MY will proceed to be despatched to reservation holders till 22MY manufacturing is fulfilled. Remaining reservationists will likely be invited to order in subsequent mannequin years.”

Farley advised Automotive Information final month that he thinks greater than 80 % of Lightning reservation holders will undergo with shopping for the truck, topping the roughly 65 % reservation-to-sales conversion fee seen for the Bronco SUV.

Ford says the automobile stays on monitor to launch within the spring with twin electrical motors anticipated to supply 563 hp and 775 pound-feet of torque.

Farley says 70 % of Lightning reservation holders are new to Ford and to pickups.

“It looks like a buyer [for whom] the gas economic system or the picture of a pickup did not work, however now that we have modernized it, they’ve discovered it extra fascinating,” he stated in a Nov. 18 interview.