Ford recalls 18 F-150 Lightning, production to resume on March 13. Details here

Ford has issued a recall for its much-hyped F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck owing to a battery issue, which forced the US auto manufacturer to halt the production of the EV. The automaker has said that a total of 18 units of the electric pickup truck from the 2023 model year have been recalled. These affected Ford F-150 Lightning EVs come with potentially defective battery cell, which has been possibly delivered to the customers, the automaker found after a quality inspection detected the battery issue.

Ford claims it is unaware of any injuries or accidents involving the F-150 Lightning connected to the issue. The automaker said that the affected electric pickup trucks' battery packs would be replaced at no cost to the customers. It also stated that owners affected by the recall would be notified soon. Also, it claims that in the meantime, the affected trucks can be driven and charged without any worry.

The recall stems from a fire incident that occurred on February 4 this year at Ford's Rouge Electric Vehicle Center. An assembled Ford F-150 Lighting EV caught fire during a quality inspection, which brought the entire assembly line to a halt, followed by an internal ingestion to find the incident's root cause. It was found that an unspecified defect in the battery cell production was behind the entire scenario.

Later a deeper investigation found potentially defective battery cells were manufactured over a foud-week period starting at the end of last year. The automaker stated that the root cause of the problem had been identified, and changes have been made to resolve that. With this, the automaker is ready to restart production of the F-150 Lightning on March 13 with new battery packs, ending a five-week production halt.