Ford said it was recalling 18 F-150 Lightning pickups “due to a battery manufacturing defect.”All 18 affected trucks will get new battery packs as a fix, Ford says car blog.
The recall is related to and resulted from an F-150 Lightning battery fire that caught fire during a quality inspection at a Ford plant on February 4 of this year. Following the fire, Ford issued a cease and desist order for Lightning while it investigated the issue. On March 2, Ford announced that it had concluded its investigation and set March 13 as the date for reopening.
Ford didn’t provide specific details about the lightning investigation at the time, but this recall notice gives us more details. We’ve pasted Ford’s statement in full below.
“Ford is recalling 18 F-150 Lightning vehicles due to a battery manufacturing defect that began late last year over a 4-week period. We recently determined that 18 vehicles with batteries from that 4-week period have been delivered to dealerships with customer.
“On February 4th, during a standard quality inspection, a vehicle experienced a battery issue and caught fire. The identified root cause was related to battery production at the SK On Georgia plant. Ford is not aware of any accidents or injuries related to this recall Report. Together with SK On we confirmed the root cause and implemented quality measures. Production is expected to resume on Monday with a clean battery pack inventory.”
In conclusion, Ford hinted that the initial cause of the fire was a battery production issue at the SK On factory. The 18 affected trucks will all have new battery packs installed, and Ford said customers will get a loaner vehicle while the work is completed. Ford also told us it was safe for customers to continue driving and charging their trucks, but encouraged them to make early appointments with dealerships.
In addition to the details of the recall, Ford also confirmed that production of the F-150 Lightning will restart on March 13 with a new battery pack using lessons learned from Ford’s investigation.
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