The Ford F-150 Lightning assembly line at Ford’s historic Rouge factory in Dearborn is sitting still at the moment. Production of the electric pickup is paused while the automaker investigates a potential problem with the truck’s battery pack. There is no stop sale of trucks already at dealer lots.
A Ford spokesperson confirmed the pause in production to Motor1.com, explaining that a potential battery issue was displayed during the automaker’s pre-delivery quality inspections. Motor Authority reported on the production pause, stating that shipments of Lightnings to dealerships are also temporarily paused. For trucks already on lots, Ford confirmed there is no stop-sale, so vehicles in inventory are still available. An investigation into the possible problem is underway, but there is no timeframe for when production may resume.
The news comes less than 24 hours after Ford announced a massive $3.5 billion investment for a new battery manufacturing plant in Marshall, Michigan. Located in rural south-central Michigan about 100 miles west of Detroit, the sprawling facility will be called BlueOval Battery Park and is expected to begin battery production in 2026. Once up and running, workers will build nickel cobalt manganese (NCM) batteries as well as lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries.
Ford says LFP batteries should lower EV costs, as they don’t require as much in the way of high-value materials for production. The downside of that is a battery pack that generally contains less power, and doesn’t perform as well in the cold. As such, LFP batteries are expected to be used as base-level packs for customers where cold weather and long-range performance aren’t necessities.
The new battery plant won’t begin production until 2026, but Ford is planning to use LFP batteries in the Mustang Mach-E starting this year. LFP batteries will be offered in the F-150 Lightning starting in 2024.
