Battery issue halts Ford F-150 Lightning production

Production and shipments of the Ford F-150 Lightning have been stopped, though sales continue.

On Tuesday, Ford spokesperson Emma Bergg confirmed to EV kind of cars a stop-build and in-transit stop-ship order has been given for the F-150 Lightning pickup truck due to a potential battery issue.

Ford on Wednesday confirmed the issue as related to the battery, with a Lightning catching fire outside, while undergoing its pre-delivery quality check. It has not yet disclosed more information about the nature of the issue.

The issue, first reported as a fire late Wednesday by the Detroit Free Press, happened where vehicles are held for those quality checks, the company clarified, and it will continue to hold those already produced vehicles while it works through engineering and process updates.

Ford has not issued a stop-sale, and Bergg has confirmed that Lightnings already sitting at dealers awaiting delivery can be delivered to customers as scheduled.

The company has said that it has no reason to believe that trucks already in customers’ hands are affected by the issue, and the automaker is unaware of any incidents or issues associate with customer-owned trucks at this time.

However on Wednesday, Begg noted that Ford has identified the “likely population of vehicles affected by the issue”—perhaps an early indication that a recall may be initiated if it later is found to affect any customer vehicles.

“By the end of next week, we expect to conclude our investigation and apply what we learn to the truck’s battery production processes; this could take a few weeks,” said Bergg.

The engineering team is currently establishing the root cause of the potential issue, and a timeline hasn’t been given as to when the stop-build and in-transit stop-ship orders will be reversed.

The Ford F-150 Lightning was named EV kind of cars Best Car To Buy 2023 for its transformative effect on the pickup-truck and electric-car market.

Ford’s electric pickup truck has received three large price hikes since it went on sale just under a year ago. The current base price of $57,869 is nearly 40% higher than the original pricing.

On Monday Ford announced a new battery plant, which is set to play a key role in making the automaker’s EVs affordable. Part of that announcement included the transition to LFP batteries for some future F-150 Lightning models.

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This story was originally published Feb. 14 and given two updates to reflect additional information provided Feb. 15.