In the wake of a factory fire at one of Ford’s largest aluminum suppliers, the automaker has decided to stop production of its F-150 Lightning electric pickup. At least for now. As Ford begins to ramp up its truck production following the Sept. 16 fire at a Novelis aluminum plant, Ford will instead increase the number of gas-powered and hybrid F-150 models to make up for lost production. These versions of the popular truck use less aluminum and are more profitable, according to Ford.
Fortunately, all hourly workers at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center where the F-150 Lightning is built will be transferred to a new third shift at the adjacent Dearborn Truck Plant. That crew, consisting of another 1,200 employees, will work to build an additional 45,000 gas and hybrid F-150 trucks before the end of the year. The Kentucky Truck Plant that builds the Super Duty will also add 100 employees to build 5,000 more units this year. Ford’s goal in all of this is clear: make up for as much of the lost production as possible with as little aluminum as possible while making as much money as possible.
Don’t worry: the F-150 Lightning and more are coming back
Ford has not said when it expects to resume production of the F-150 Lightning, but it likely won’t be before the end of 2025. Novelis has said it won’t be able to start supplying aluminum again until December at the earliest. Fortunately, Ford says it has “good stocks” of the F-150 Lightning for now, so if you want to buy a new one, there are plenty available.
Ford also can’t be blamed for sacrificing its electric truck anytime soon. While it’s true that the F-150 Lightning is the best-selling electric truck on the market, sales are minuscule compared to gasoline-powered F-150s. More than 207,000 gas-powered F-Series trucks were sold in the third quarter, compared to just 10,005 units of the electric Lightning.
During the company’s latest earnings call, Ford CEO Jim Farley made sure to mention all the ways the company is still committed to electric vehicles in the future. This includes continued development of its Universal EV platform that will deliver a $30,000 electric truck, adding more longer-range electric vehicles and traditional hybrids, and starting production of new low-cost LFP battery cells. Farley said: “In the short term, I think electric vehicle adoption will only be about 5 percent of the US market now, but this will grow, especially for affordable EV vehicles.”
TopSpeed’s opinion
Sales of electric pickup trucks are not what any automaker expected. Tesla expected to make 250,000 to 500,000 units of the Cybertruck annually, but instead ranks second behind the F-150 Lightning, which sold 33,510 units last year. The market just doesn’t want much of any company’s electric trucks, no matter how good they are.
We hope that Ford doesn’t use this pause in production for the F-150 Lightning as a move to cancel the truck altogether. That’s unlikely, given the significant investment it has made in the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center where it is assembled and the goodwill the truck has garnered as the most popular bed EV.
And yet Farley made it clear that the future of Ford’s electric strategy is affordable electric cars, led by a $30,000 electric truck built on its new Universal EV platform. It makes you wonder if there’s a future for the F-150 Lightning besides such a vehicle.
Source: TechCrunch
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