Ford F-150 Lightning production is going to be on hold for at least another week as the automaker continues to deal with a battery issue that resulted in a fire in one their electric pickup trucks earlier this month.
According to a statement issued by Ford on Friday, their battery supplier SK has resumed production of battery cells at their plant in Georgia. The resumption of cell production came after Ford agreed “with SK’s recommended changes in their equipment and processes for SK’s cell production lines.”
However even though cell production has resumed, Ford did not give an exact date for when they hoped to resume Lightning production, saying production will be suspended “through the end of next week” as it will take time “to ensure they are back to building high-quality cells and to deliver them to the Lightning production line.” (via CNBC) Ford halted production of the Lightning on February 14.
Ford said it is not aware of any other incidents related to this specific issue and that it does not impact Lightning trucks that have already been delivered to customers. Many owners are not so convinced their trucks might not have the issue however.
Neither Ford nor SK have publicly disclosed what the exact issue is that caused a Lightning to catch fire in a holding lot on February 4 in Michigan, but unless SK made a change in their production processes around then it seems unlikely that the issue only impacts packs built after the date of the one which caught fire.
