It’s already resumed production in preparation for Ford to do the same
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by Stephen Rivers
3 hours ago
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by Stephen Rivers
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Ford’s battery supplier ‘SK On’ says that the battery defect that caused an F-150 Lightning to burn down isn’t a fundamental flaw. The news comes as Ford continues to extend a shutdown on the F-150 Lighting production line. For its part, the battery supplier has already resumed production after the incident that ultimately damaged three vehicles.
Back on February 4th, a single Ford F-150 Lightning caught on fire, and then that fire spread to two other vehicles. Thankfully, all three were sitting in a pre-delivery inspection vehicle holding lot in Dearborn at the time. Ford ultimately confirmed the fire but said that it had no reason to believe that customer vehicles were affected by the same issue.
It also felt confident that it has determined the root cause and would apply what it learned to the production process. Now, the brand’s battery supplier, SK On has already resumed production and has a statement of its own that confirms what Ford’s told us.
“We believe this was a rare occurrence, not a fundamental issue with the technology of the battery cells or our overall manufacturing systems… Working with Ford, SK On identified the root cause of the issue and implemented measures of improvement in our processes to address the issue,” it said in a statement to the Detroit News.
For now, it seems as though the issue hasn’t been found in any trucks that have made it into customers’ hands. SK On also reiterated that it and Ford are building three more battery plants along with another EV F-Series pickup truck plant in Kentucky and Tennessee. In total, the projects will cost some $11.4 billion dollars.
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Ford has yet to release any information on when the F-150 Lightning production line will restart. The brand loses money every day that it’s down and demand for the electric pickup certainly isn’t diminishing. Before the fire, Ford said that it hoped to ramp production to 150,000 units before the end of 2023. It also hasn’t confirmed when deliveries will begin again.
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