Ford Motor Co. confirmed Wednesday that a vehicle fire prompted a production stoppage on the all-electric F-150 Lightning.
The Dearborn, Michigan, automaker also said Wednesday it will keep production of the electric pickup truck down through at least the end of next week as it continues to probe the issue.
The Detroit Free Press first reported news of a vehicle fire. Earlier this week, Ford confirmed it 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 Wednesday. Ford said it identified the issue on a Lightning unit during a standard pre-delivery quality inspection. The company believes it has identified the cause, but has not provided further information on the cause.
In all, the process could take a "few" weeks, the company said. Ford will continue holding Lightning units that have been assembled but not yet delivered to dealers.
The company said it's not aware of any other instances of the battery issue, nor does it believe that any vehicles that have been delivered to customers are affected.
Ramping up production of the Lightning is key to Ford's goal of boosting electric-vehicle capacity to 600,000 units annually by the end of this year and 2 million units annually by the end of 2023. The automaker aims to boost Lightning production to 150,000 units annually by this year.
Battery fires have been an issue in some other electric vehicles.
General Motors Co., for example, halted production of the Chevrolet Bolt after it 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 folded separator, as the root cause of fires that occurred in Bolts. The Detroit automaker confirmed at least 18 fires globally, as of last year. It replaced battery modules in the recalled units and production resumed in April 2022.
Sam Abuelsamid, an analyst at Guidehouse Insights, said the severity of the issue for the Lightning depends on what the underlying cause is.
"It could be relatively minor, or it could be really big. It depends on what the root cause is. If the cause was a defective charger that overcharged the battery, then it could be a one-time thing," he said. "On the other hand, if it is a manufacturing process problem with the cells, that could be more serious — and that could take longer to fix."
From a consumer perspective, Abuelsamid said it's difficult to tell at this point what the impact of such an incident could be.
"For a high-profile product like the Lightning, it could be very important — or it might turn out to be nothing," he said. He noted, for example, that GM's issue with the Bolt ultimately involved multiple recalls — and yet the vehicle is selling well today.
"For the Lightning, it's going to depend on how Ford handles this, what the extent of the problem is, how many vehicles are affected," said Abuelsamid, "and will this cause ongoing production delays to the vehicle, because they're trying to build these things as fast as they can."
Meanwhile, Ford reportedly has also stopped production this week at the automaker's Louisville Assembly Plant due to a quality issue on the Ford Escape. According to local media citing a temporary layoff notice, the plant is down through Feb. 19 while Ford sorts out production issues with the refreshed 2023 Escape.
In response to an inquiry about the downtime at LAP, Ford spokesperson Kelli Felker said in a statement: "We are committed to ensuring our vehicles are built with the quality our customers deserve and will take the appropriate actions to deliver this commitment."
Quality has been a nagging and costly issue for the Dearborn automaker, and executives have identified it as a key area of focus as they look to cut costs. Ford was No. 1 in recalls in the U.S. for the last two years, executives have said, and the automaker is eyeing a $1 billion reduction in warranty costs.
