Ford to pause production of F-150 Lightning electric pickup trucks
Ford Motor on Thursday said it is temporarily halting production of the Detroit automaker's F-150 Lightning pickup truck until 2025 amid waning consumer demand for electric vehicles.
Ford will pause manufacturing of the EV at its Rouge Electric Vehicle Plant on November 15 and resume on January 6.
"We continue to adjust production for an optimal mix of sales growth and profitability," the company said in a statement to CBS MoneyWatch.
Ford also said it will furlough roughly 730 hourly employees, although it noted that not all workers will be sidelined for the duration of the production freeze.
Ford launched the F-150 Lighting, which MotorTrend named its truck of the year in 2023, two years ago, underlining the car maker's push into EVs. With sales sluggish, Ford last year slashed the vehicle's price by thousands of dollars.
For the third quarter, Ford reported a $1.2 billion loss on Model e, its separate EV unit. The company projects losses of $5 billion for Model e for all of 2024, attributing the financial hit in part to "industrywide pricing pressure."
Earlier this year, Ford scrapped plans for an all-electric, three-row SUV to focus on hybrid models. At the time, the company said its plan was to "speed customer adoption" of more affordable vehicles with longer driving ranges. That includes developing a new family of three-row, hybrid SUVs.
Electric vehicle prices are tumbling as cars pile up on lots amid cooling consumer demand. The average price of a new EV in May was $56,648, according to Kelley Blue Book, down roughly 15% from two years earlier, when the average price was $65,000.