DETROIT — Going into 2021, Ford Motor Co. was treading carefully to ensure electric vehicle production didn't get too far ahead of demand.
Now, it's scrambling to figure out how to build enough EVs to keep up with a flood of orders for the Mustang Mach-E and nearly 200,000 reservations for the F-150 Lightning that isn't even on sale yet. The push to churn out more of both nameplates is delaying the next two EVs that Ford planned to follow the Lightning and displacing them from the Mexico factory that was to make them.
It's the latest example of the speed with which automakers are reshaping production schedules and the choices they have to make as the industry collectively pivots toward electrification.