Battery drawback stops F-150 Lightning manufacturing at Ford
Meeting on the Ford plant has been halted since February 5. SK Battery America, a subsidiary of SK On, has additionally suspended its manufacturing of the batteries at its manufacturing unit in Commerce, Georgia.
Ford has additionally stopped all deliveries of the car to sellers whereas it really works by engineering and course of updates. To date it has issued no recall for fashions already offered, stating that it had no purpose to imagine F-150 Lightnings already in prospects’ palms had been affected by this challenge.
The fault was found throughout a typical pre-delivery inspection high quality test, in accordance with the carmaker.
“One car displayed a battery challenge and caught fireplace,” stated a spokesperson for Ford. “We imagine now we have recognized the foundation reason for this challenge. By the tip of subsequent week (February 24), we count on to conclude our investigation and apply what we be taught to the truck’s battery manufacturing course of; this might take a couple of weeks.”
Full manufacturing of the F-150 Lightning started on the Dearborn facility in April final 12 months. Gross sales climbed above 13,000 by the tip of 2022. The corporate stated it’s ramping up manufacturing to ship 150,000 Lightning vehicles per 12 months by the tip of 2023.
Three way partnership plans
Ford signed a three way partnership settlement with SK Innovation in 2021 referred to as BlueOvalSK to provide round 60 gigawatt hours (GWh) a 12 months with scope for enlargement by the center of the last decade.
That enterprise goals to assist Ford’s $11..4 billion funding in EV manufacturing. That features $5.6 billion for a ‘mega-campus’ in Stanton, Tennessee, named Blue Oval Metropolis, which is able to home a BlueOvalSK battery plant, an meeting line for electrical F-Sequence pickup vehicles, key suppliers and recycling.
Ford and SK Innovation are additionally developing a $5.8 billion BlueOvalSK Battery Park in Central Kentucky, which is able to contain “twin battery vegetation” to provide EV batteries for Ford’s North American meeting services rolling out electrical Ford and Lincoln automobiles.
When it signed that settlement Ford stated its world battery electrical car (BEV) plan referred to as for no less than 240 GWh of battery cell capability by 2030, roughly the quantity generated by 10 vegetation, in accordance with the corporate. Roughly 140 GWh of that output is required in North America, with the stability devoted to different key areas, together with Europe and China.
Globally, Ford stated it might spend $30 billion to affect merchandise by 2025, including that by 2030 40% of the automobiles it offered can be electrical.
Final week the carmaker introduced an funding of $3.5 billion in a battery-making facility in Marshall, Michigan. The 35 GWh plant will make lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries for its electrical automobiles (EVs) from 2026. Will probably be in a position make sufficient battery cells for 400,000 EVs per 12 months.
