Ford announced on Wednesday it believes it has identified the root cause of an issue impacting the F-150 Lightning battery pack, which resulted in the automaker issuing a stop-build and in-transit stop-ship order for the electric pickup truck earlier this week.
Ford didn’t explain what the issue is, nor the root cause behind it, but it is serious enough that they will be suspending production of the Lightning “through at least the end of next week,” putting a potential restart at February 24 at the earliest.
UPDATE: Ford has now confirmed the issue was a F-150 Lightning that caught fire in a holding lot and which spread to a nearby vehicle (via Detroit Free Press)
The automaker warned however the process to fully apply their learnings to the battery pack production process could take “a few weeks.”
During this period no newly built trucks still with Ford will be shipped to dealers. Lightning trucks already in the hands of customers appear to be not affected by this issue.
“We are suspending production at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center through at least the end of next week. During a standard Lightning pre-delivery quality inspection, one vehicle displayed a battery issue. We believe we have identified the root cause of this issue. By the end of next week, we expect to conclude our investigation and apply what we learn to the truck’s battery production process; this could take a few weeks. We will continue holding already-produced vehicles while we work through engineering and process updates.”
“We are not aware of any incidents of this issue in the field and do not believe F-150 Lightnings already in customers’ hands are affected by this issue.”
“We will continue to update this story as more information becomes available,” Ford said.
