Ford Motor’s battery supplier says the flaw that caused a fire in the electric F-150 Lightning and halted production earlier this month was not a fundamental flaw in the design of the power supply.
SK On, the automotive battery unit of South Korea’s SK Innovation Co Ltd, is working with Ford to identify the problem and implement a fix, the company said in an emailed statement. A fire in a loft near Lightning’s Dearborn, Michigan, plant spread to two other trucks on February 4 and shut down the plant for a fourth week.
“We believe this is a rare occurrence, not a fundamental problem with the battery cell technology or the manufacturing system as a whole,” SK said in a statement. “Working with Ford, SK On identified the root cause of the problem and implemented improvement measures in our processes to address the problem.”
SK said it has resumed battery production at its factory in Georgia. SK and Ford are spending $11.4 billion to build three battery plants and an electric F-Series assembly plant in Tennessee and Kentucky. Ford also announced this month that it is building a $3.5 billion battery plant in Michigan that will use technology from China Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd, the world’s largest manufacturer of EV batteries.
The Lightning is Ford’s signature plug-in vehicle as the automaker expands its lineup by investing $50 billion to develop and build 2 million battery-powered models a year by 2026. The Dearborn plant where it’s made has been running seven days a week. it aims to boost production to 150,000 vehicles a year this fall.
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