Ford suspends F-150 Lightning production until 2025 due to weakness

Despite stronger lightning demand in 2024 than in 2023, electric truck production will cease after November 15 and will not resume until January 6

Ford is temporarily halting production of the F-150 Lightning as part of a plan to combat weak demand for electric vehicles that is causing problems for several automakers.

The Lightning line at the Ford Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Michigan will be idle from mid-November until January 6, 2025. automotive news Report. Granted, that time frame includes Ford’s customary week-long holiday shutdown, but it’s still an embarrassing fall from grace for a truck that was supposed to be one of Ford’s halo models.

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If you’ve been following Lightning news during 2024, this decision may surprise you. In the first nine months of this year, electric truck sales were up 86% compared with the same period in 2023, although the situation is not perfect. When Ford switched Lightning production from two shifts to one shift earlier this year, it was forced to lower its sales forecast and lay off workers at the Rouge plant. The F-150’s rival, the Tesla Cybertruck, easily knocked it off the electric truck sales charts. Tesla sold 16,692 Cybertrucks in the third quarter, while Ford sold 7,162 Lightnings.

Ford hasn’t disclosed how much F-150 EV inventory it holds (as of last month, all F-150 models had 100 days of inventory, according to Cox Automotive), but the fact that the company is shutting down production lines suggests that There are so many finished products that Lightning is hanging around, wanting to cut down on inventory. To prevent itself from being put into the same situation as other electric vehicles in a few years, Ford announced in August that it was delaying the launch of another large electric truck and canceling a planned three-row electric SUV. It will focus on developing smaller models and hybrids.

The slowdown in electric vehicles has caught many automakers off guard, and Ford isn’t the only brand forced to idle production lines to get back on track. Fiat announced in September that it would suspend production of its 500e in Italy for a month, but recently extended the suspension by another three weeks due to continued poor sales.

Fortunately for Ford, it doesn’t throw all its eggs into the electric basket and can still offer buyers an internal combustion engine truck. But Fiat discontinued its combustion 500 and is now forced to redesign the electric model to accept a hybrid system, a project that will take several years.

We’ve reached out to Ford for comment and will provide an update on this story as soon as they respond.