The Ford F-150 Lightning will still resume production on Monday, March 13.
On Friday, the folks over at Autoblog reported an update from Ford on the battery issue that impacted production of its electric pickup truck over the past several weeks. As a quick refresher, a battery pack caught fire in a holding lot during a quality check on February 4, prompting the automaker to stop manufacturing the Lightning while it worked with supplier SK On to determine the cause of the problem. While both sides have ironed out the issue, the Blue Oval is recalling 18 trucks that did make it out into the general public.
Ford says manufacturing of those trucks took place over a four-week period starting at the end of last year. Further, the automaker said, “We recently established that 18 vehicles containing cells from that four-week period had made it to dealers and customers.”
As a point of reference for the scope of this recall, Ford sold 15,617 F-150 Lightning pickups last year.
The problematic batteries originated from SK On’s plant near Atlanta, Georgia. Ford is not aware of any accidents or injuries related to the recall, and stressed that it confirmed the root cause of the defect and took corrective action. As such, “production is on track to resume Monday with clean stock of battery packs.”
Ford will replace the battery packs on the 18 affected trucks. There is not a stop-drive order on those trucks, though the company is encouraging those few owners to schedule an appointment to replace the pack sooner rather than later, and will provide a loaner vehicle through the process.
H/T to Zac Palmer at Autoblog for the information.
