Ford is restarting F-150 Lightning production after six-week shutdown for factory retooling

Ford is restarting production of its F-150 Lightning electric truck after a six-week shutdown for factory upgrades. The automaker says the increased capacity will allow it to triple production to a targeted annual run rate of 150,000 trucks by this fall.

The news comes after a somewhat dour earnings report in which the Blue Oval reported losing $1.1 billion before interest and taxes on its EV business, more than twice as much as it lost over the same period last year. It also follows news that Ford is slashing prices on the F-150 Lightning by as much as $10,000 as EV competition heats up and inventory rates at dealerships skyrocket.

The Rouge Electric Vehicle Center, located outside of Dearborn, Michigan, grew from 505,000 square feet to 875,000 square feet over the course of the shutdown. Ford also added brand-new equipment to “automatically measure and validate exterior body fit for margin and flushness precision” — the first time such tools have been used at Ford’s plants in North America. Ford also added a third station to validate wheel alignment and headlamp aim for driver-assist technology.

Ford says it now expects its factory workers at the Rouge center to build more than 70,000 electric trucks this year alone, with production for US customers expected to ramp up this fall.

The company plans to restart production with its most in-demand trim level, XLT, which accounts for over 50 percent of customer orders. Pro versions of the F-150 Lightning, which is the least expensive model, will also be available to customers “in limited quantities,” and new trim levels are set to join the lineup soon.

Ford announced new prices for all its trim levels earlier this month, right after The Verge reported that many F-150 Lightning reservation holders were canceling their orders because of price hikes. Many people have been waiting since the truck’s official launch in 2022 for their more affordable Pro versions that have never arrived.

Ford is facing a number of big challenges for its EV business, beyond even testy customers. The company now says it expects to lose a total of $4.5 billion on its EV business for the entire year of 2023, up from a previous prediction of $3 billion in losses. And it predicts it will make 600,000 EVs by the end of 2024, a figure the company previously expected to hit by the end of this year.