Photo: Jim Farley
After Ford announced a halt to production on F-150 Lightning units this week due to a mysterious battery issue, new statements from the company provide more details on the problem that caused production to stop.
Ford said on Wednesday that its F-150 Lightning production line will be down until the end of next week at least, in order to address battery issues that caused a vehicle fire, as reported by the Detroit Free Press (via CNBC).
The fire took place in a holding lot for the company during pre-delivery quality checks, and it spread to another vehicle nearby, according to the company.
Production on the electric F-150 ceased early last week, but engineers from the automaker on Wednesday seem to have discovered the fire’s source. Additionally, the company expects to solve the issue by next week, alongside production adjustments that “could take a few weeks.”
Ford says it isn’t aware of any incidents related to the battery issue in its vehicles that were already delivered to dealerships or customers.
The news is just the latest in Ford’s “execution issues,” as CEO Jim Farley said earlier this month.
Additionally, Farley said that profitability on Ford’s electric vehicles (EVs) won’t come until 2025, adding that the automaker uses 25 percent more engineers than its rivals to do the same amount of work — the latter of which could indicate upcoming job cuts.
Ford Announces $3.5 Billion EV Battery Plant in Michigan, Using CATL Technology https://t.co/YXd6Y6eY3X
— TeslaNorth.com (@RealTeslaNorth) February 13, 2023
