Cory Gunther
If you’re awaiting delivery of a new Ford F-150 Lightning electric truck, we have bad news. This week Ford initiated a nationwide “stop shipment” order and halted production over battery-related issues.
Update, 2/16/23: According to Electrek, Ford already figured out its battery issue that caused shipments and production to stop. While the company initially said production would resume “in a few weeks,” by the end of February, we learned production wouldn’t resume until sometime in March.
Update, 3/23/23: Eventually, Ford ended up recalling 18 F-150 Lightning’s already sent to owners or dealerships. Then, production resumed on March 13th. For those wondering, new recall documents released by the NHTSA explain that a “manufacturing defect in the battery cells may result in an internal short circuit when the high voltage battery is at a high state of charge, which could result in a fire.” Ford said that no vehicles available to the public experienced a short circuit or fire.
From what we’re hearing, this “potential problem” doesn’t affect current vehicles available for sale, so Ford didn’t issue a stop-sale order. However, production and in-transit vehicles were halted as Ford investigated the issue.
According to the automaker, a vehicle displayed a potential issue (caught fire) during the pre-delivery quality inspection. As a result, Ford started a root cause analysis to find out more details on the situation. It’s worth mentioning that the problem doesn’t affect current vehicles already delivered, as those passed the pre-delivery inspection.
As a result, the stoppage only applies to trucks in transit or being manufacturered on the assembly lines. According to MotorAuthority, Ford didn’t disclose the potential problem. Furthermore, Ford didn’t state how many vehicles could be affected.
We’re unsure what’s happening but expect to receive some clarification in the coming days or weeks. Inventory is already impossible to find on dealer lots, and this setback will only make things worse. For now, we’ll have to wait and see.
via DriveTeslaCanada
