The Ford Motor Co. will extend its production halt for the F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck at its plant in Louisville, Kentucky, until March 6.
On Friday, Ford spokesperson Emma Bergg told FOX Business: “The teams worked quickly to identify the root cause of the issue and agree with Ford’s battery supplier SK’s recommended changes in their equipment and processes for cell production lines.”
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“SK has started building battery cells again in Commerce, Ga., but it will take SK time to ensure they are back to building high-quality cells and to deliver them to the Lightning production line,” she added. “Ford’s Rouge Electric Vehicle Center will suspend production through the end of next week.”
SK Battery America is the first electric vehicle battery factory in the U.S. for South Korea’s SK Innovations. Since 2019, the company has invested $2.6 billion to build two battery manufacturing facilities in Jackson County, northeast of Atlanta, to supply electric vehicles, including the Ford F-150 Lightning and the Volkswagen ID.4. SKBA started mass production in early 2022.
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Last week, Ford initially suspended production after the battery in one of the electric pickups caught fire on Feb. 4.
The automaker announced that it had stopped building and shipping the full-size truck due to the battery issue during a pre-delivery quality inspection process.
The fire occurred in a company lot in Dearborn, Michigan, where the truck was being held before shipping and spread to a nearby truck.
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FOX Business reporter Gary Gastelu contributed to this article.
