Ford Motor Co. halted production of the F-150 Lightning on Feb. 5 — earlier than previously known — following a battery fire in one of the automaker’s popular plug-in pickup trucks.
(Bloomberg) — Ford Motor Co. halted production of the F-150 Lightning on Feb. 5 — earlier than previously known — following a battery fire in one of the automaker’s popular plug-in pickup trucks.
The fire erupted in one vehicle late on Feb. 4 in a holding lot near the plant in Dearborn, Michigan, before spreading to two nearby trucks. No one was injured, Ford said Thursday in an emailed statement.
The newly disclosed details show the extent of the disruption for a key model that has helped the automaker become the No. 2 seller of EVs in America, behind Tesla Inc. Ford has said the plant will remain closed at least through next week, costing Ford a minimum of three weeks of production.
Read more: Ford Extends Shutdown of F-150 Lightning Plant Through Next Week
“During a standard Lightning pre-delivery quality check, one vehicle displayed a battery issue and caught fire,” Ford said in the statement. “The plant was not damaged. No employees were injured or at risk at the plant or at the holding lot.”
Ford said it believes its engineers found the root cause of the fire and that it could take several weeks to apply the lessons learned from the investigation. The company said it doesn’t believe vehicles already delivered to customers are affected by the issue.
The Lightning is Ford’s signature plug-in vehicle as it moves to electrify its lineup by investing $50 billion to develop and build 2 million battery powered models a year by the 2026. The factory had been running seven days a week as it boosts production to 150,000 vehicles a year by this fall.
“The Lightning order bank is sold out,” John Lawler, Ford’s chief financial officer, said at the Wolfe Research Global Automotive Conference Wednesday. “We’re selling every one we can.”
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