If you’re awaiting delivery of a new Ford F-150 Lightning electric truck, we have bad news. This week Ford initiated a nationwide “stop shipment” order and halted production over battery-related issues.
Update, 2/16/23: According to Electrek, Ford already figured out its battery issue that caused shipments and production to stop. Thankfully, the company said current vehicles are not affected, but it still didn’t share details on what it found. Shipments and production should resume “in a few weeks.”
Update, 2/27/23: While Ford previously said production would resume “in a few weeks,” now we’re hearing it won’t start back up for at least another two weeks, if not longer. The updated timeframe means the company stopped production for almost a month, which will certainly limit an already tight inventory.
From what we’re hearing, this “potential problem” doesn’t affect current vehicles available for sale, so Ford didn’t issue a stop-sale order. However, production and in-transit vehicles were halted as Ford investigated the issue.
According to the automaker, a vehicle displayed a potential issue during the pre-delivery quality inspection. As a result, Ford started a root cause analysis to find out more details on the situation. It’s worth mentioning that the problem doesn’t affect current vehicles already delivered, as those passed the pre-delivery inspection.
As a result, the stoppage only applies to trucks in transit or being manufacturered on the assembly lines. According to MotorAuthority, Ford didn’t disclose the potential problem. Furthermore, Ford didn’t state how many vehicles could be affected.
We’re unsure what’s happening but expect to receive some clarification in the coming days or weeks. Inventory is already impossible to find on dealer lots, and this setback will only make things worse. For now, we’ll have to wait and see.
via DriveTeslaCanada
