Ford put a brief maintain on manufacturing of the all-electric F-150 Lightning pickup due to a potential battery drawback, the automaker confirmed Tuesday.
The information comes only a day after Ford introduced plans for a $3.5 billion battery plant to enter Marshall, Michigan. The facility will produce a lower-cost model of lithium-ion batteries that will probably be used for base fashions of the Lightning and Ford’s different EV, the Mustang Mach-E. A high-performance battery can also be added to the combination, officers revealed on Monday.
“We’re holding (both production and shipment) of vehicles while we investigate” the issue, spokesperson Emma Berg informed TheDetroitBureau.com. “The team is conducting a cause analysis.”
High demand, low provide
She declined to debate the particular drawback that led to the halt of manufacturing. She additionally famous there was no “stop-sale” order issued. That means sellers can proceed promoting and delivering automobiles they have already got available.
Considering the lengthy backlog of orders, any delay in manufacturing of the Lightning might be problematic for each Ford and its sellers.
The automaker initially anticipated comparatively gentle demand for the all-electric truck, tooling up a brand new facility at a producing complicated within the Detroit suburbs to provide simply 25,000 yearly. It started taking reservations on-line in May 2020 and CEO Jim Farley reported having round 200,000 by the point it closed the reservation line the next December.
An enlargement of the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center is anticipated to spice up yearly capability to round 150,000 of the vehicles. Even then, it should take till someday in 2024 to fulfill simply the unique demand, Darren Palmer, Ford vp of Electric Vehicle Programs, informed TheDetroitBureau.com late final 12 months.
Ongoing manufacturing challenges
Though Ford has not revealed the reason for the present delay it has had an uneven run since manufacturing began final spring. The scarcity of semiconductors has been an ongoing headache, based on Palmer and different Ford sources. The automaker has additionally adjusted, even briefly halted, manufacturing to handle varied high quality points.
Palmer has repeatedly burdened the will to attenuate issues with the electrical pickup as soon as in clients’ arms, acknowledging the potential points defects might trigger to Lightning’s picture.
Ford is at present the second-largest vendor of EVs within the U.S., delivering greater than 66,000 Mach-Es and Lightnings worldwide in 2022 — regardless of being having restricted capability. It is concentrating on a roughly 900% improve in its annual run fee to 600,000 items this 12 months, and a couple of million in 2026.
Ford including new, low-cost battery know-how
To assist enhance demand and to carry down the price of its EVs, Ford is engaged on methods to interrupt manufacturing bottlenecks whereas additionally reducing the worth of its batteries — the one largest value of at this time’s electrical automobiles.
The automaker on Monday introduced it should open the $3.5 billion plant in Marshall, which is a bit more than 100 miles west of Detroit. It will license know-how from China’s CATL, one of many world’s largest EV battery producers. The manufacturing unit will concentrate on LFP, or lithium-iron-phosphate, batteries that are considerably cheaper to construct than the NCM, or nickel-cobalt-manganese, cells at present utilized by Ford and plenty of different producers.
While LFP batteries supply barely shorter vary than the present know-how, they’re applicable for base fashions, Ford officers defined, including that they may help the automaker drop costs to draw entry-level clients.
Price parity
The firm declined to debate particular costs, however an analyst with Guidehouse Insights informed TheDetroitBureau.com on Monday that, with incentives contained within the federal Inflation Reduction Act, domestically produced LFP batteries might drop to under $75 per kilowatt-hour. That determine is extensively thought-about the purpose at which automakers can promote EVs at a worth parity with gas-powered automobiles and nonetheless make a revenue.
“I can’t answer” particular value particulars, Ford Chairman Bill Ford stated throughout a information convention on Monday, noting “(t)hat’s where LFP really is going to help us … from an affordability standpoint. Ultimately, it’ll make us more affordable.”
High-performance battery additionally within the works
The new Michigan battery plant received’t go into operation till 2026, however Ford will start importing LFP batteries from China within the meantime. The first will probably be utilized in variations of the Mach-E beginning later this 12 months. The Lightning will add a base LFP-powered package deal subsequent 12 months.
In a briefing on battery know-how afterward Monday, Ford officers additionally dropped hints they’re engaged on new battery know-how that would yield considerably larger power density — the quantity of energy that may be saved inside a person cell. That would allow each longer vary and better efficiency, they stated, with out offering a timeline for the launch of such new battery know-how.
Source: www.thedetroitbureau.com