Automotive: Ford Halts F-150 Lightning Production (Update)

After halting production, now comes news that Ford Motor will cut planned production of its all-electric F-150 Lightning pickup roughly in half next year.

It marks a major reversal after the automaker significantly increased plant capacity for the EV in 2023.

“We’ll continue to match production with customer demand,” a Ford spokeswoman said Monday.

The company has only sold 20,365 of the trucks this year through November.

Buyers waiting for their Ford F-150 Lightning electric truck might have to wait a bit longer than anticipated.

On Tuesday, Ford spokesperson Emma Bergg confirmed to Motor Authority that both a stop-build and an in-transit stop-ship order have been issued for the F-150 Lightning due to a potential battery issue.

The nature of the battery issue was not disclosed by the automaker.

Bergg said the potential issue was identified as part of Ford’s pre-delivery quality inspections. The automaker is unaware of any incidents or issues associated with this potential issue in the field with customer-owned trucks.

A stop-sale has not been issued and all F-150 Lightnings already built and at dealers are cleared for scheduled delivery.

Bergg wouldn’t elaborate on the potential battery issue. The engineering team is currently establishing the root cause of the potential issue.

A timeline hasn’t been given as to when the stop-build and in-transit stop-ship orders will be lifted.

“It depends on how long it will take to conduct the root cause analysis,” Bergg said.

The Lightning has received three price hikes since its launch nearly a year ago. Starting from $57,869, the Lightning is now 38.9% more expensive than when it first went on sale.