Ford stops production of F-150 Lightning EV after battery fire

SEOUL, Feb. 17 (UPI) -- Ford Motor has halted production of its F-150 Lightning electric pickup trucks after a fire caused by the battery, a product line provided by South Korea's SK On.

The company said Wednesday that the truck caught on fire near its Dearborn, Mich., plant during a pre-delivery quality inspection earlier this month, also damaging two nearby vehicles.

Ford has suspended production and shipment of the pickups until a joint review with SK On, scheduled for the end of the month, is complete.

"By the end of next week, we expect to conclude our investigation and apply what we learn to the truck's battery production processes," Ford spokeswoman Emma Berg said in a statement.

SK On said Friday there were no additional fires concerning vehicles powered by its batteries.

"We have identified the cause of the fire and proposed measures to prevent such recurrences," SK On said in a statement.

The F-150 Lightning, hailed as the North American Truck of the Year in December, was launched in May to great popularity. About 18,000 of the trucks were sold last year.

Ford's focus on electric pickups is in line with the company's ambitious plan to electrify all its makes. The company has vowed to spend more than $50 billion across the globe to do so.

Ford said it aims to sell 600,000 electric vehicles globally this year with the goal of selling 2 million by the end of 2026.

An industry analyst said Ford's ties with the Chinese supplier CATL could be strengthened at the expense of SK On. On Monday, Ford announced it would partner with CATL on a new $3.5 billion battery plant in Michigan.

"It is not certain yet whether or not the SK On battery was faulty. It could have been some other factor that caused the problem," Daelim University automotive Professor Kim Pil-soo told UPI News Korea.

"In light of that, Ford's response is quite extraordinary, which is why experts here suspect that Ford maybe using the occasion to reduce its reliance on SK On while increasing its ties with CATL," he said.