Ford Motor Co. is decreasing production of its all-electric F-150 Lightning pickup truck after the new year in Dearborn, according to a report from Automotive News.
“We will continue to match production to customer demand,” spokesperson Jess Enoch said in a statement, declining to provide specifics about changes at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center, which employs 2,200 people.
In its report, Automotive News cited a supplier memo that states the automaker will produce 1,600 vehicles per week. The plant had planned production for double that.
The change is the latest in a series of moves by the Dearborn automaker and others in the industry to pull back on electric vehicle production. Availability of charging stations, charging speeds, grid reliability and EV affordability remain obstacles to mass adoption.
Ford in October said it was cutting $12 billion in planned EV investment as the growth in adoption slows. That included almost halving the size of its west Michigan battery plant in Marshall and delaying by a year the launch of production at one of its two battery plants in Kentucky with SK On. The automaker also cut back production in Mexico of the Mustang Mach-E SUV and has decreased requirements for dealers to be EV certified in the coming years.
“We’re … not changing our strategy,” Chief Financial Officer John Lawler said last month, “but changing our tactics and pulling back on some of the capital investment around the capacity that we’re putting in place so that we can better match capacity with demand.”
The Lightning’s U.S. sales are up. In November, they rose 113% to a record monthly and year-to-date high. But sales aren’t growing as quickly as expected, despite a several thousand-dollar price drop in July.
In January 2022, Ford announced plans to double Lightning production to 150,000 vehicles per year. It was down for six weeks this summer to expand the capacity.
“The demand is there,” Marin Gjaja, chief customer officer for Ford Model e, said when the expansion was completed. “We now have the supply to match it.”
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