Ford Will Pause F-150 Lightning Plant For Seven Weeks Because of Weak Demand

[Yardbird]

Ford Will Pause F-150 Lightning Plant For Seven Weeks Because of Weak Demand​

Story by Andy Kalmowitz


We’re starting off with some bad news for Ford. The Blue Oval says it plans to stop building the electric F-150 Lightning pickup truck from mid-November through the end of the year. The automaker is pointing the finger at lower-than-expected demand for the decision.

The seven-week shutdown is slated to start at the end of the day on November 15. It’ll encompass the traditional week-long holiday break, and production will restart again on January 6 (if Mike Pence has the courage.) The news got out when Ford notified suppliers and plant officials of the plan. From Automotive News:

“We continue to adjust production for an optimal mix of sales growth and profitability,” Ford said in a statement.
The extended hiatus in Lightning output marks the latest downshift for a once-hot product whose importance CEO Jim Farley and Executive Chair Bill Ford have likened to that of the Model T.
Ford started the year by cutting in half planned Lightning production targets and slashing two-thirds of the jobs at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, Mich., dropping it to one daily shift. In early 2024, a stop-ship order for an undisclosed quality issue halted shipments of the truck for more than nine weeks, although production continued.

Sales of the F-150 Lightning are actually up 86 percent to 22,807 trucks this year through September. That may sound pretty good, and it is, but it also means the Lightning lost its title as the U.S.’s best-selling electric pickup to the Tesla Cybertruck.

Cox Automotive said Ford had a 100-day supply of F-150s at the end of September, although it did not provide an estimate specifically for the Lightning. The automaker entered October with 130 days’ worth of the Mustang Mach-E and enough E-Transit vans to last 128 days, Cox said.
Farley, on Ford’s Oct. 28 third-quarter earnings call, cited the “slow uptake of EVs” as a challenge but said he was pleased with the strength of Ford’s overall electric vehicle strategy, “which I wouldn’t trade for any of our competitors.”
The automaker has pivoted its focus away from larger EVs to a low-cost platform that will first underpin a midsize pickup in 2027. Ford last year said it would delay about $12 billion in EV spending and has pushed back the production timeline for a next-generation full-size electric pickup.
Farley, on the earnings call, said the company has reduced EV costs by $1 billion this year and trimmed capacity by 35 percent.
[...]
Farley said Ford expects to “improve the trajectory of Model e’s business through cost scaling” in 2025, although it has not yet provided financial guidance. Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas, in an Oct. 29 investor note, estimated Ford’s EV loss would shrink to $4.4 billion in 2025.

Ford was able to reduce the losses it suffered from its Model e EV business in the third quarter to $1.2 billion. However, it still expects the unit to lose about $5 billion in 2024. Ouch.


https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/new...S&cvid=0cd28d18b800476e90c1903c8a700b72&ei=48

 

[Docwagon1776]

Still too expensive, IMO, for wide appeal. *IF* I wanted an EV truck, the Lightning Flash would probably be it, though.