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Ford will shut down its F-150 Lightning EV plant in Dearborn for several weeks.

Posted on by L. Dreeye
Ford will shut down its F-150 Lightning EV plant in Dearborn for several weeks.

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Ford Motor Co. said Thursday it will idle its F-150 Lightning electric truck plant in Dearborn from mid-November through the end of the year as the automaker continues to cope with slower-than-expected demand for electric vehicles.

Production will pause after the end of the shift on November 15 and will resume on January 6, a Ford spokesman confirmed. Ford would not confirm how many workers would be affected, but Automotive News reported that it would affect about 800 workers, including 750 hourly workers.

“We continue to adjust production for the optimal combination of sales growth and profitability,” Ford spokeswoman Jessica Enoch said in an email.

The electric vehicle landscape has changed dramatically since Ford first introduced the Lightning in May 2021. Shortly after its presentation, the automaker said it would double production to meet consumer demand, and at one point the company shut down its reservation system to cope with overwhelming demand. answer.

As recently as last spring, Ford said it planned to hire an additional 300 new hourly workers at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center as the automaker strives to maximize production.

Production cuts are part of a ‘bumpy and inconsistent’ EV market

However, earlier this year, Ford cut Lightning production in half and cut the plant’s hourly workforce by two-thirds..

Ford said in August it was changing its electric vehicle strategy after mounting losses and said it was prioritizing a new all-electric commercial van while delaying a full-size electric pickup truck.

Stephanie Brinley, chief analyst at S&P Global Mobility, said Ford’s “continuous management of production and demand” is better than an automaker continuing to produce electric vehicles like the Lightning but then being forced to use more incentives to sell them.

Brinley said she expects more similar moves — such as slowing production or postponing investments and plant openings — from automakers “as the EV market has been very uneven and inconsistent.”

“The reality is that consumers are not emerging as quickly as people had hoped at one point,” she said. “But they are coming, and (the electric vehicle market) is still growing.”

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Ford Model e (the automaker’s electric vehicle division) reported a loss before interest and taxes of $1.2 billion in the third quarter, continuing a trend of Ford losing money on electric vehicles.

On Monday, during a third-quarter earnings call with analysts, Ford President and CEO Jim Farley said there is a global EV price war, “fueled by excess capacity, a flood of new EV nameplates and enormous compliance pressure.”

Farley said Ford expects about 150 new electric vehicles to hit the North American market by the end of 2026 and is already seeing aggressive leasing tactics from its competitors.

In response, Farley said Ford is focusing on costs by delaying launches, reducing battery capacity and accelerating its battery mix so it can take advantage of tax credits available for producing lithium iron phosphate batteries at a battery plant it is building outside Marshall. Michigan.

Reduced bonuses for managers

Farley told employees that the automaker must step up efforts to cut costs and improve quality, and that manager bonuses tied to those metrics would be cut to 65% of their total, Reuters reported on Thursday.

The company’s bonuses are directly tied to progress against key goals in an effort to change the culture of the 121-year-old automaker to hold employees more accountable under a new performance framework. Farley made the announcement about the bonus cuts at City Hall on Wednesday, Reuters reports.

The industry as a whole is adjusting its electric vehicle strategy as it tries to cope with demand that is growing but falling below forecasts. General Motors, for example, said in June it was adjusting its electric vehicle production targets for this year.

Contact Adrienne Roberts: [email protected]