Ford cites fire for F-150s’ halt

Ford Motor Co. has confirmed that a vehicle fire prompted a production stoppage on its all-electric F-150 Lightning.

The Dearborn, Mich., automaker also said it will keep production down of the electric pickup truck through at least the end of next week as it continues to probe the issue.

Earlier this week, Ford said the company had halted production and stopped shipments of the vehicle over an unidentified battery problem. The F-150 Lightning is built at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn.

Production at the F-150 Lightning plant will remain down while the company wraps up an investigation “and (applies) what we learn to the truck’s battery production process,” spokesperson Emma Bergg said in a statement. Ford said it identified the issue on a Lightning unit during a standard predelivery quality inspection. The company believes it has identified the cause but has not yet provided further information.

Overall, the process is expected to take a “few” weeks, the company said. Ford will continue holding Lightning units that have been assembled but not yet delivered to dealers.

Ford said it’s not aware of any other instances of the battery issue, nor does the automaker believe that any vehicles delivered to customers are affected.

Ramping up production of the Lightning is key to Ford’s goal of boosting EV capacity to 600,000 units annually by the end of the year and 2 million units annually by the end of 2024. The automaker aims to boost Lightning production to 150,000 units annually this year.

Battery fires have been an issue in some other EVs. General Motors Co., for example, halted production of its Chevrolet Bolt after the company issued a recall in August 2021 on all Bolts produced up to then — more than 141,000 — for a battery fire risk.

The automaker and supplier LG Energy Solution identified two battery manufacturing issues, a torn anode tab and a folded separator, as the root causes of fires that occurred in Bolts. The Detroit automaker confirmed at least 18 fires globally, as of 2022. GM replaced battery modules in the recalled units and production resumed in April 2022.