Ford Motor paused production and shipments of its all-electric F-150 Lightning pickup truck because of possible battery issues. Ford stock edged lower Tuesday.
The auto giant issued a stop-build and an in-transit stop-ship order on the F-150 Lightning due to potential battery problems, Motor Authority reported Tuesday. Ford would not disclose what type of battery issues it was investigating.
The stop-shipment order and halt in production was issued at the beginning of last week and there is no timeline for production and shipments to resume, according to the Motor Authority report.
Ford stock dropped 0.8% to 12.99 during Tuesday's market trading.
Going into early 2023, the automaker planned on "pulling out all the stops" to nearly double F-150 Lightning production to meet "soaring" customer demand. By the middle of 2023, Ford plans to build 150,000 F-150 Lightning trucks per year.
Ford previously planned to build 15,000 electric F-150s in 2022, 55,000 in 2023 and 80,000 in 2024. But in December, Ford closed reservations for the F-150 Lightning truck after its entire planned production for this model sold out three years ahead of time.
Multiple price hikes also pushed the entry-level Lightning price to more than $57,000, up 40% vs. the original $39,974. That reflects the Lightning's popularity but also its scarcity, plus the high costs for batteries.
In early February, Ford missed Q4 earnings estimates and gave a downbeat outlook. For fiscal 2023, Ford expects to generate $9 billion to $11 billion in adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT), with the midpoint below adjusted EBIT of $10.4 billion in 2022.
Ford anticipates $6 billion in adjusted free cash flow, which would be well below $9.1 billion for 2022. In 2023, analysts project Ford earnings of $1.51 per share, a 20% decline from 2022 levels. Revenue for the full year is seen growing 1% to $159.72 billion.
In 2022, Ford's EV sales more than doubled to 61,575, despite tight inventories. That made Ford the distant No. 2 EV maker in the U.S., behind Tesla.
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Ford Stock: Job Cuts In Europe
Ford also announced plans Tuesday to cut 3,800 jobs across Europe over the next three years.
"These are difficult decisions, not taken lightly. We recognize the uncertainty it creates for our team, and I assure them we will be offering them our full support in the months ahead," Ford of Europe General Manager Martin Sander said in a statement Tuesday.
Ford stock ranks fourth in IBD's Auto Manufacturers industry group. F shares have a Composite Rating of 37 out of 99. The stock has a 29 Relative Strength Rating, an exclusive IBD Stock Checkup gauge for share-price movement. The EPS rating is 47.
