DEARBORN, Mich. — Ford Motor Co. plans to spend $250 million and add 450 jobs at three Michigan plants to meet demand for the new F-150 Lightning.

Ford has taken more than 150,000 reservations for the new electric version of its immensely popular F-150 pickup truck, Kumar Galhotra, Ford's president of the Americas, said during a news event Thursday.

“As the orders have been coming in, as the reservations have been coming in, it was just time for us to (increase) the capacity to meet that demand,” he said.

Galhotra made the announcement at the new Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in the automaker's hometown of Dearborn, where the first pre-production trucks are being made.

The new truck, planned to be available to customers by next spring, will be able to travel up to 300 miles per battery charge and carries a starting price of around $40,000.