Ford employees produce the electrical F-150 Lightning pickup on Dec. 13, 2022 on the automaker’s Ford Rouge Electrical Car Heart (REVC).
Michael Wayland | CNBC
DETROIT – Ford Motor plans to restart manufacturing of its electrical F-150 Lightning pickup on March 13 – greater than a month after a battery factor led to one of the crucial cars to catch fireplace.
The automaker on Thursday advised CNBC the manufacturing timeline will permit its battery provider, SK On, to increase manufacturing and ship battery packs to the Michigan plant the place the truck is produced.
The fireplace came about Feb. 4 in a conserving lot all through a pre-delivery high quality test whilst the car used to be charging. Ford suspended manufacturing of the cars and issued a stop-shipment to sellers. Ford declined to expose main points of the problem that led to the car to catch fireplace or of the applied resolution. The corporate up to now stated engineers decided there used to be no proof of a charging fault.
“Within the weeks forward, we can proceed to use our learnings and paintings with SK On’s staff to make sure we proceed turning in top of the range battery packs – right down to the battery cells. As REVC ramps up manufacturing, we can proceed conserving already-produced cars whilst we paintings via engineering and portions updates,” Ford stated in a remark to CNBC.
Ford ultimate week introduced SK had began development battery cells once more at a plant in Georgia however stated the automaker would lengthen downtime at its Rouge Electrical Car Heart, the place the F-150 Lightning is constructed, via no less than this week.
The F-150 Lightning is being intently watched by means of traders, as it is the first mainstream electrical pickup truck available on the market and a big release for Ford. The battery factor provides to ongoing “execution problems” detailed to traders ultimate month by means of Ford CEO Jim Farley that crippled the automaker’s fourth-quarter income.
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Ford to begin with opened buyer reservations for the F-150 Lightning when it used to be published in Might 2021. Greater than 200,000 reservations had been positioned previous to Ford briefly ultimate the method to try to align manufacturing with anticipated call for.
Many reservation house owners are nonetheless looking ahead to their cars, as Ford stated previous Thursday it is offered fewer than 20,000 of the all-electric vans since they went on sale ultimate yr.