By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Ford Motor Co said on Friday it was on track to resume production of F-150 Lightning vehicles on Monday after the No. 2 U.S. automaker recalled 18 electric trucks due to a battery cell manufacturing defect.
The recall announced Friday stemmed from production over a four-week period starting at the end of last year. Ford said it had recently established “that 18 vehicles containing cells from that four-week period had made it to dealers and customers.”
Ford said it will replace the battery packs in the 18 vehicles but said it is not aware of any fires or any injuries related to the recall.
The automaker previously announced it planned to restart production Monday after it halted output after a EV battery fire in early February.
Ford said an EV truck caught fire Feb. 4 during a pre-delivery quality inspection in a company holding lot in Dearborn, Michigan and spread to two other trucks. The automaker halted production the next day.
The automaker said Friday “the root cause identified was related to battery cell production at the SK On plant in Georgia. SK On is the automotive battery unit of SK Innovation (.
Ford said together with SK On it had “confirmed the root causes and have implemented quality actions.”
Ford said Friday it still has not set a date for resuming deliveries but said production is on track to resume Monday with a “clean stock of battery packs.”
(Reporting by Kannaki Deka in Bengaluru and David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and David Gregorio)
