Ford suspends electric F-150 Lightning production for another week following battery fire

DETROIT — Ford Motor is suspending accumulation of its electrical F-150 Lightning pickup for different week pursuing a artillery contented that resulted successful 1 of the vehicles catching fire aboriginal this month.

Ford said Friday its artillery supplier, SK, has started gathering artillery cells again astatine a works successful Georgia but it volition instrumentality clip "to guarantee they are backmost to gathering high-quality cells and to present them to the Lightning accumulation line."

"The teams worked rapidly to place the basal origin of the issue," Ford said successful a connection Friday. "We hold with SK's recommended changes successful their instrumentality and processes for SK's compartment accumulation lines."

Ford past week said it expected Lightning accumulation to beryllium down done astatine slightest this week, arsenic engineers determined the root origin of the artillery issue and implemented improvements to the manufacturing process.

The occurrence occurred Feb. 4 successful a holding batch during a pre-delivery prime cheque portion the conveyance was charging. Days later, Ford suspended accumulation and issued a stop-shipment of the vehicles to dealers. Ford said engineers determined determination was nary grounds of a charging fault.

Ford said it is not alert of immoderate incidents of this contented successful vehicles that person already been delivered to customers and dealers.

The F-150 Lightning is being intimately watched by investors, arsenic it's the archetypal mainstream electrical pickup motortruck connected the marketplace and a large motorboat for Ford.

The artillery contented adds to ongoing "execution issues" detailed to investors earlier this period by Ford CEO Jim Farley that crippled the automaker's fourth-quarter earnings.