Ford F-150 Lightning electric pick-up production paused due to spontaneous fire

UPDATE, 17 February 2023: A Ford US spokesperson has confirmed assembly of the F-150 Lightning was halted after one of the electric pick-ups caught fire spontaneously after it rolled off the production line.

While Ford initially claimed F-150 Lightning production had been paused indefinitely due to a battery fault – discovered during a routine pre-delivery inspection – the company has since told the Detroit Free Press a vehicle caught fire in a holding yard.

“I can confirm one vehicle fire ... (but) we have no reason to believe F-150 Lightnings already in customer hands are affected by this issue,” said Ford US spokesperson Emma Bergg told Detroit Free Press.

“We are suspending production at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center through at least the end of next week. We believe we have identified the root cause of this issue.

"By the end of next week, we expect to conclude our investigation and apply what we learn to the truck’s battery production process; this could take a few weeks."

Our original story continues unchanged below.

16 February 2023: US car giant Ford has indefinitely suspended production of its popular F-150 Lightning electric pick-up due to a battery fault, according to overseas reports.

US publication Motor Authority reports the F-150 Lightning’s production line in Dearborn, Michigan has been paused indefinitely after Ford discovered a battery fault during a routine pre-delivery inspection of the electric pick-up.

A Ford spokesperson told Motor Authority the investigation into the cause of the fault has forced Ford’s US division to issue an “in-transit stop-ship order” for the F-150 Lightning – preventing customers from receiving their electric pick-ups.

While the spokesperson did not provide additional details regarding the nature of the defect, they said Ford is not currently aware of any faults in its F-150 Lightnings which have already been delivered to US customers. 

Ford initially set a target of producing 40,000 F-150 Lightnings per year before it soon doubling the figure to 80,000, finally settling on 150,000 examples annually by mid-2023 – an average of 12,500 electric pick-ups per month.

Ford reported 15,617 F-150 Lightnings as sold in the US between its launch in April 2022 and the end of December 2022 – less than 2.5 per cent of its annual F-Series pick-up sales.

The US car giant has not yet released its production figures and sales for January 2023, though it’s expected to fall short of its projected monthly target after producing 2359 F-150 Lightnings in December 2022.

The popularity of the Ford F-150 Lightning in the US led to three price hikes in four months last year, with its starting price increased by 40 per cent across the period.

As previously reported, the F-150 Lightning is not coming to local showrooms as it is exclusively built for left-hand-drive markets – though both Ford Australia and the car-maker’s Detroit head office have left the door open for the electric pick-up, provided local remanufacturing of the right-hand-drive, petrol-powered F-150 is successful.