Manufacturing and shipments of the Ford F-150 Lightning have been stopped, although gross sales proceed.
On Tuesday, Ford spokesperson Emma Bergg confirmed to Inexperienced Automotive Experiences a stop-build and in-transit stop-ship order has been given for the F-150 Lightning pickup truck as a consequence of a possible battery concern.
Ford on Wednesday confirmed the difficulty as associated to the battery, with a Lightning catching hearth outdoors, whereas present process its pre-delivery high quality test. It has not but disclosed extra details about the character of the difficulty.
The difficulty, first reported as a hearth late Wednesday by the Detroit Free Press, occurred the place autos are held for these high quality checks, the corporate clarified, and it’ll proceed to carry these already produced autos whereas it really works by means of engineering and course of updates.
Ford has not issued a stop-sale, and Bergg has confirmed that Lightnings already sitting at sellers awaiting supply could be delivered to prospects as scheduled.
The corporate has mentioned that it has no purpose to consider that vans already in prospects’ fingers are affected by the difficulty, and the automaker is unaware of any incidents or points affiliate with customer-owned vans right now.
Nonetheless on Wednesday, Begg famous that Ford has recognized the “likely population of vehicles affected by the issue”—maybe an early indication {that a} recall could also be initiated if it later is discovered to have an effect on any buyer autos.
“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,” mentioned Bergg.
The engineering crew is at the moment establishing the foundation explanation for the potential concern, and a timeline hasn’t been given as to when the stop-build and in-transit stop-ship orders shall be reversed.
The Ford F-150 Lightning was named Inexperienced Automotive Experiences Greatest Automotive To Purchase 2023 for its transformative impact on the pickup-truck and electric-car market.
Ford’s electrical pickup truck has acquired three giant value hikes because it went on sale just below a 12 months in the past. The present base value of $57,869 is almost 40% larger than the unique pricing.
On Monday Ford introduced a brand new battery plant, which is about to play a key position in making the automaker’s EVs reasonably priced. A part of that announcement included the transition to LFP batteries for some future F-150 Lightning fashions.
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This story was initially printed Feb. 14 and given two updates to mirror extra info supplied Feb. 15.
