Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include new information from Ford about the production pause.
Ford paused production and shipments of its F-150 Lightning electric trucks due to a potential battery issue, the automaker confirmed to Manufacturing Dive Wednesday morning.
The suspension, which began Feb. 5, is set to last until at least the end of next week, according to spokesperson Emma Bergg. The stop went into effect after an issue was detected during pre-delivery quality inspections.
"As part of our pre-delivery quality inspections, a vehicle displayed a potential battery issue and we are holding vehicles while we investigate," Bergg said in an email. "We are not aware of any incidences of this issue in the field."
The automaker believes it has identified the root cause of the issue, she said in a separate email Wednesday afternoon. Ford does not believe any F-150 Lightnings currently in customers’ hands are affected by the issue.
“By the end of next week, we expect to conclude our investigation and apply what we learn to the truck’s battery production process; this could take a few weeks. We will continue holding already-produced vehicles while we work through engineering and process updates,” Bergg said
Ford launched the electric pickup truck in April 2022 at its EV manufacturing facility in Dearborn, Michigan. In January, the automaker announced plans to nearly double production of the truck to 150,000 units per year to meet customer demand, with almost 200,000 order reservations on the books.
Word of the production stoppage comes days after Ford announced plans to invest $3.5 billion in a Michigan factory to build lithium phosphate EV batteries.
