Ford stops reservations for F-150 Lightning electric pickup due to strong demand, CEO tells Cramer

Published Thu, Dec 9 20211:28 PM ESTUpdated Fri, Jan 14 202212:47 PM EST

(To sign up for the "CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer," subscribe here .) Ford CEO Jim Farley said Thursday that interest in the automaker's soon-to-launch F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck is so great that it had to stop taking reservations. "We are completely oversubscribed with our battery electric vehicles, Lightning especially," Farley said in an interview during a special live online event, "CNBC Investing Club: Jim Cramer's Game Plan for 2022." "We had to stop reservations we got so many," Farley added. "We stopped at 200,000, and those are orders. Hard orders." Farley said Ford, a core holding in Cramer's charitable trust, is pushing full production capacity at "70,000 or 80,000 units" for the Lightning, the all-electric version of America's decadeslong best-selling F-series pickup truck. "We're going to try to double that," he said. "We've done it in the past. Don't bet against Ford when we have to increase capacity. This is what we do." The Lightning is expected to arrive in dealerships by mid-2022. Cramer has touted Farley's ability to execute a turnaround at Ford since Farley was promoted from chief operating officer to the top job, effective Oct. 1, 2020. The stock has soared since then, gaining nearly 200% as of Wednesday's closing price of $19.81. "We started recommending Ford Motor to 'Mad Money' viewers way back in October of last year. The stock was trading at seven bucks and change," Cramer recalled during the special on Thursday. "Just over a month later, we took our own advice and bought it for the charitable trust." Viewers of CNBC have seen Cramer talking about Farley and how he hopes to beat Tesla and Elon Musk in electric vehicles. Cramer tried to get Farley to call out Musk. The Ford CEO did not take the bait, mostly. Farley said, "I'm a race car driver. Second place is the first loser." He added, in a veiled reference to Musk, "I can't keep track of the other racers. All I know is there's one finish line and we are motivated to get there." In an interview with Automotive News last month, he said he plans to increase EV production capacity to 600,000 units globally by 2023. He expects that would make Ford the No. 2 electric-vehicle maker, presumably behind Tesla but possibly General Motors , which plans to sell 1 million electric vehicles globally by 2025. Farley also ran through a bunch of other hot-button issues. He said Ford needs batteries for its EVs more than semiconductors . "The issue is batteries. That's what we have to solve." He said it's too early to tell what Ford might do with its "over $10 billion" stake in newly public Rivian Automotive . He called the EV maker a "great American company." Amazon is also a backer. He also commented on Ford's plan to reinstate its regular dividend in the fourth quarter. "We had to start somewhere. Ten cents is a good place to start." We'd love your feedback on the CNBC Investing Club event. Please fill out this survey here . The CNBC Investing Club is now the official home to my Charitable Trust. It's the place where you can see every move we make for the portfolio and get my market insight before anyone else. The Charitable Trust and my writings are no longer affiliated with Action Alerts Plus in any way. As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Typically, Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If the trade alert is sent pre-market, Jim waits 5 minutes after the market opens before executing the trade. If the trade alert is issued with less than 45 minutes in the trading day, Jim executes the trade 5 minutes before the market closes. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. See here for the investing disclaimer . Disclosure: Jim Cramer's charitable trust is long F and AMZN.

VIDEO10:3810:38

Our business is gaining health and momentum, says Ford CEO Jim Farley

Monthly Meeting

(To sign up for the "CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer," subscribe here.)

Ford CEO Jim Farley said Thursday that interest in the automaker's soon-to-launch F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck is so great that it had to stop taking reservations.