Back in January, The Blue Oval confirmed that production of the 2024 Ford F-150 Lightning at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center would be cut in half as demand for all-electric vehicles, in general, began to stabilize after a rapid start. A few months later, Ford also trimmed its workforce at the Rouge plant, shifting some to other facilities and offering others retirement packages. Previously, production of the 2025 Ford F-150 was slated to begin in November, but now, it seems as if the automaker will instead idle assembly lines for some time.
According to Automotive News, FoMoCo will idle production of the Ford F-150 Lightning at the Rouge facility for seven weeks, starting at the end of the day on November 15th, 2024 and resuming on January 6th, 2025 – a pause that includes the traditional weeklong holiday break. The move comes amid slower-than-expected demand for the EV pickup, and Ford has already notified its suppliers of the newly adjusted production schedule.
“We continue to adjust production for an optimal mix of sales growth and profitability,” Ford said in a statement, marking the latest instance in which we’ve seen production of the F-150 Lightning trimmed back from expected levels. In addition to these planned pauses, the automaker also stopped Ford F-150 Lightning production earlier this year after issuing a stop-sale over an undisclosed quality issue. That process took nine weeks to rectify, after which production resumed.
Despite this latest production cut, the Ford F-150 Lightning continues to enjoy sales increases, most recently posting an 86 percent year-over-year gain through the first nine months of the year at 22,807 units. The Lightning did concede the crown of best-selling EV pickup in the U.S. to the Tesla Cybertruck recently, however. Regardless, Ford hasn’t yet disclosed what sort of plans it has for the roughly 750 workers currently stationed at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center during this seven week shutdown.
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Comments
Ford needs figure out how get the cost down. They have been making these things for more than a couple of years. Wish them well as I think they are a good company but their dealer network are just awful.
This proves demand for these ultra expensive EV’s is getting weaker by the week. If demand decreases even more, production of this ultra expensive vehicle may be halted permanently.