Ford has confirmed to The Detroit Free Press that the all-new 2021 Ford F-150 is still scheduled to go on sale and hit production in 2020.
The automaker, like its competitors, was forced to close U.S. plants in late March due to the coronavirus pandemic but intends on restarting factory production in North America this week.
“We are on track to deliver our all-new Ford F-150 to customers starting this fall,” Ford global manufacturing and labor communications manager Kelli Felker said. “The team continues to do an amazing job moving the program forward, even with coronavirus challenges. We look forward to showing the world our all-new pickup soon and start delivering to customers this year.”
While Felker declined to say when the Dearborn Truck Plant and Kansas City Assembly sites would shut down to retool operations for the new F-150, a preliminary shutdown schedule obtained by The Detroit Free Press lists Dearborn as shutting down its F-150 line in the weeks of September 7 and September 14 while the Kansas City Assembly will shut the F-150 line on the weeks of October 12 and October 19.
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On Thursday during the automaker’s annual shareholder meeting, executive chairman of the company, Bill Ford, indicated the F-150 will play a key role in helping Ford reach its financial goals.
“While our 2019 financial results didn’t meet our expectations or yours … we will soon resume an ambitious cycle of new product introductions and we’ll continue to exit from shrinking segments while adding exciting new products like the F-150,” he said.
According to a member at the F-150 Gen14 forum, production of the new F-150 will start at Ford’s Dearborn plant on September 28 while the Kansas City Plant will start building the new pickup on October 26.
