Just a few weeks ago, 2023 Ford F-150 Lightning production was halted after one of those vehicles caught fire in a holding lot, and that pause was quickly extended as FoMoCo and its battery supplier SK On worked to figure out what went wrong. It didn’t take long to sort out these problems, as SK noted that it had figured out what led to the fire and had made changes to its assembly line to correct it, while battery production has already resumed. Meanwhile, 2023 Ford F-150 Lightning production is expected to restart at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center on March 13th, but now, some additional details regarding this shutdown have emerged courtesy of the Detroit Free Press.
The 750 employees at the Rouge plant have been on layoff during this production pause, while those with at least one year of seniority are collecting 75 percent of their pre-tax pay. However, what many may not be aware of is the fact that it hasn’t just been workers at the Rouge plant that have been affected by this shutdown – but also, employees of the Rawsonville Components Plant in Ypsilanti, where the Lightning’s battery packs are assembled.
Rawsonville employees have also been on temporary layoff as this problem is being sorted out, and that facility has simply been operating with a skeleton crew of around 25 percent of its total workforce over the past few weeks. However, the roughly 70 workers at that facility will now return to work in phases, with about 50 percent of those employees expected back next week, depending on the flow of batteries coming from SK On.
Meanwhile, a number of new battery packs have already been assembled and are awaiting installation in Ford F-150 Lightning pickups once production at the Rouge plant resumes next week, as expected.
We’ll have more on the F-150 Lightning, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for the latest Ford F-Series news, Ford F-150 news, F-150 Lightning news, and non-stop Ford news coverage.
Comments
So…..what caused the fire?
the fires are caused by batteries that have not been tested enough, caused by 2 years of rushing to market and to hurry up and flood the market to get trucks out there that can’t even tow a 3500 lb trailer 80 miles. the lighting is a 90K grocery getter.
LoL K-street’s Tricky Mickey, coming out again with the bad faith scripted talking points and adding his own myopic speculation to them vis-a-vis the RC for the battery fire. He even tries to amp it by misrepresenting one fire as “fires”. What a moron.
🥱!
Oh no, could it be, our old idiot friend Kenny Boy?
‘Affected’ not ‘Effected’. Remember, when you put a plan into effect. You affect the outcome.
Trickle Down effect. Can’t build a Battery, Can’t build an EV! PERIOD…. So, All Involved are affected. Glad at this Point that the FORD Dealer didn’t Communicate with me at all on my F-150 Lightning Order. I cancelled my order! Cancelled my Cyber Truck Order Also! Bought something that I can Actually Drive.
The respondents here, are not representative of the buying public in general. Much of what all of you are saying is self serving at best for a number of unrelated reasons. Are you listening RWFA?
With this in mind… don’t you think it a bit odd that ‘any’ new vehicle would catch fire all by itself before it was put service?
I am fascinated by the BEV story… I just don’t think it is even close to prime time for the marketplace… especially for its detractors and cheerleaders, neither of which seem to make compelling arguments.
LoL you went Big Oil K-street awhile ago my friend, so it’s not surprising to see “I like BEV … just not for a long time because “apocalyptic BS …”
You’d be surprised what catches on fire all by itself, and it’s by no means confined to EV’s.
In every product, in every industry, mistakes happen, some of them have unintended thermal events that progress to fire.
This is nothing new, nor nothing to be unduly scared about (it’s no apocalypse) despite the Big Oil lobby here towing hard to make folks paranoid with their bad faith FUD.
I love my lightning, first 10,000 km actually cost me 364.00 in energy costs. My truck works for a living towing my mini excavator and bobcat to work. I tow on average 120 km for work and even when it was 42C below I made it out to a job with the excavator “3 ton” 64 km one way and back with range to spare. I only charge at home and I don’t waste time at a gas station. My longest towing trip last fall was with my car trailer 160 km empty and picked up my grandsons mud Jeep and brought is back the 160 km with 61 km left in the tank. My lighting replaced a 3/4 ton diesel with all the egr and def problems.
I never have to worry about will it go or how much time is it missing in action while in for repairs. I only have to keep my foot under control as it will spin all 4 with 4 ton on behind.
Totally satisfied here in Nova Scotia.
Really cool to hear some real world towing experiences.
Between you and Stu, the Canadians are giving us good counterbalance to the K-street nutjobs with their endless 70 miles to oblivion comments.
Thanks 🇨🇦 !
There seems to be something in common between all the strident anti-EV posts and strong anti-Biden posts. Maybe many of the same people? Just an observation.
It exists. The same troll teams pushing conservative nonsense are doing same anti BEV. They are trying to use their anti-woke (former communist, former tree hugger, etc) rhetoric to drive diminish wedges to herd conservatives away from BEV.
Because that’s all they got. They are devoid of ideas. They are paid by incumbent fuel interests. So they sell FUD, disinformation and lies.