Ford is temporarily halting production of its all-electric F-150 Lightning pickup truck in response to declining demand for battery-powered vehicles.
The Detroit automaker announced Thursday it will halt pickup truck manufacturing for several weeks starting in mid-November.
Ford workers will resume building the F-150 on January 7.
The move comes after Ford made several price cuts Its F-150 models earlier this year. After Ford was cut Production has been halted due to quality issues.
“We continue to adjust production for the optimal mix of sales growth and profitability,” Ford said in a statement Thursday.
Ford is scaling back its EV plans, saying in August it was scrapping a planned three-row electric SUV Pushing back a new electric version of the F-150 pickup.
The company has instead invested more in hybrid vehicles, which combine an electric motor with a gasoline engine.
Ford said this month that its EV sales in the U.S. are up 45% this year and F-150 Lightning sales more than doubled to 7,100 in the three months ending Sept. 30 — thought they’re still the fastest selling car of all F-series pickups. represent only 3.6%. Sales.
The company cut one shift in F-150 Lightning production in April after announcing in October 2023 it would temporarily cut one of three shifts at its Michigan plant.
Ford CEO Jim Farley, who told a podcast earlier this month He is fond of the Chinese-made Xiaomi sedan, which he specially flew into the country from Shanghai, saying that one of the main solutions to slowing EV sales growth is to reduce production costs.
This is an important goal for the future health of the company, which is expected to lose about $5 billion on EVs this year alone.
Ford this week reported third-quarter net income of $900 million, or 22 cents per share, hurt by a $1 billion charge on its decision to cancel production of a three-row EV SUV in August.
Its shares fell by more than 10% on Tuesday. Shares were down 1.3% at $10.34 on Thursday afternoon.
According to three people familiar with the matter, Farley has told employees that the automaker needs to accelerate efforts to improve quality and reduce costs, and that manager bonuses, which are tied to those metrics, will rise to 65% of their total. Will be reduced.
Farley recently introduced a new performance system where company bonuses are directly tied to progress on key goals in an effort to change the 121-year-old automaker’s culture to hold employees more accountable.
He announced the lower bonus at a town hall on Wednesday.
“I’m proud of the progress but we’re not at all satisfied,” Farley said in a third-quarter earnings presentation on Monday.
with post wire
