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Ford Motor will pause manufacturing on its F-150 Lightning till a minimum of February 24 for the reason that electrical pickup truck has a battery downside.
The Michigan automaker noticed a possible battery factor this week all over a pre-delivery high quality inspection and began investigating the reason. Ford mentioned it isn’t conscious about battery problems impacting automobiles already out at the street.
“We imagine we’ve recognized the foundation reason behind this factor,” Ford spokeswoman Emma Bergg advised CBS MoneyWatch on Wednesday. “By way of the tip of subsequent week, we think to conclude our investigation and practice what we learn how to the truck’s battery manufacturing procedure.”
Making use of that procedure “may just take a couple of weeks,” Bergg mentioned.
“We will be able to proceed retaining already-produced automobiles whilst we paintings via engineering and procedure updates,” she mentioned.
Ford started promoting its F-150 Lightning final 12 months. The manufacturing pause threatens Ford’s plan to ship 600,000 Lightning vehicles in 2023.
Since their free up final Might, Ford has offered 15,617 of the electrical vehicles, in keeping with the latest corporate information to be had. The corporate offered 2,436 of them in October, probably the most ever offered in a single month.
Hovering call for for EVs
Ford is making a bet large at the F-150 Lightning, making an investment tens of millions of greenbacks on a brand new facility for a automobile that is already been named the 2023 MotorTrend Truck of the 12 months.
When corporate officers first introduced the truck in 2021, call for temporarily soared because the pre-order checklist surpassed 100,000 inside 3 weeks. Employees are development the automobile in a brand new plant in Dearborn, Michigan.
Ford’s pause comes as hobby and insist for electrical automobiles proceed to upward push within the U.S. A survey from motor membership AAA discovered that a couple of quarter of American citizens say they wish to get an electrical automobile as their subsequent automobile acquire. Analysis from Recurrent, a automobile trade research corporate, discovered that hobby in purchasing an electrical automobile has soared 70% since final January.
Ford raised the cost of the F-150 Lightning in October because it sought to offset emerging production prices. Different automakers additionally hiked the price of their EV traces — together with Rivian, GM and Tesla — amid surging steel costs and better prices for elements like lithium, which is used to make batteries.
Ford previous this month reported $1.3 billion in benefit for the fourth quarter of 2022, down kind of 89% from the similar duration final 12 months. CEO Jim Farley mentioned in an income name this month that he is annoyed with the 2022 efficiency “for the reason that 12 months will have been so a lot more for us at Ford.”
Ford’s inventory worth fell just about 1% on Wednesday to about $12.80 a proportion, its 2nd day of declines.
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