• Ford has suspended production of its F-150 Lightning.
• A battery problem has been detected, forcing the automaker to stop production.
• The teams are working on a solution so it can restart the assembly line as soon as possible.
Production of the electric version of the Ford F-150, the Lightning, has been suspended by Ford due to a battery problem. The company's engineers are working on the problem, the nature of which has not been revealed.
The news was first reported by Motor1 and Motorauthority; it was confirmed yesterday by Emma Bergg, a Ford spokesperson, to the Detroit Free Press.
She said the high-tech plant, built and designed specifically for this very important vehicle for the company, has been down for a week now as the team tries to figure out the problem. However, the company has declined to provide details beyond that. The Ford F-150 Lightning is officially in a stop-build and stop-delivery state to dealers.
There is no stop-sales order for dealers, however. Even so, it’s believed dealers do not have vehicles in stock, given demand and supply chain issues.
Ford can't say when production will resume. Spokesperson Bergg also did not say how many vehicles that had been planned have not been built since the shutdown.
The waiting list is already long. It will only get bigger.
A production shutdown is costly for a manufacturer, but the exceptional procedure that has been undertaken could save Ford from greater losses, considering that if it had continued production, it might have had to recall models made with problematic batteries.
The irony with this news is that it comes one day after Ford's top boss Jim Farley and chairman Bill Ford announced plans to build a new $3.5 billion battery plant in Marshall, Michigan.
