The Ford F-150 Lightning resumes production beginning March 13.
Ford officials believe the battery-related problems that led to the F-150 Lightning fire have been resolved.
On Thursday, Ford spokeswoman Emma Bergg told Motor Authority that production of the Ford F-150 Lightning will resume on March 13.
The continued production stoppage will allow Lightning's battery supplier, SK On, time to assemble the battery cells into arrays and packs before feeding them into the production line, Bergg said.
All Lightnings that have already been manufactured but not shipped will continue to be placed under stop-shipment orders while the team works on "engineering and component updates."
Berg did not elaborate on what these engineering and parts updates would entail, or why the fire occurred, what the battery issue was that led to the fire, or what changes will be made to the trucks going forward.
The vehicle fire, caused by a battery issue, occurred in February at the Dearborn, Michigan, site where the company keeps vehicles for quality checks. Production was halted for a month as a result of the fire.
No suspension of sales and recalls have been issued for F-150 Lightnings that have already been built and are in dealerships or have already been delivered. All Lightnings shipped from the factory had no problems with scheduled deliveries.
Ford has not released detailed production information and has not disclosed how many Lightnings were rolling off the assembly line per day when production was halted. It is unclear to what extent this setback has delayed production; Bergg noted that Ford has not disclosed details on the number of Lightning reservations in the bank, but said there were 200,000 units at the time Ford stopped taking reservations in December 2021.
In 2022, Ford reported sales of 15,617 F-150 Lightnings, with 2,359 sold in December.
Ford has raised the Lightning's price three times since its launch about a year ago. The base Lightning is currently priced at $57,869, 38.9% higher than when it first launched.
