Ford says it is cutting production of F-150 Lightning due to lower than expected demand. Starting April 1, the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center (the Michigan plant where the electric pickup is built) will switch from two production shifts to one. This will affect approximately 1,400 employees.
The automaker says it will move about half of those to its Michigan Assembly Plant, where it will join a third crew to build more Broncos and Bronco Raptors, as well as a new Ranger and Ranger Raptor to meet demand. The company is hiring another 900 workers to fill that gap.
The rest of the affected F-150 Lightning employees will be reassigned to various positions at the Rouge plant or other Ford facilities in the region. That is, unless they accept a retirement incentive offer.
Ford did not say how much it is reducing production of the F-150 Lightning. However, by switching to one of the two shifts, this suggests that production would be cut in half, which is in line with recent reports. according to CNBCFord planned to cut production from about 3,200 units per week to 1,600 units per week.
The automaker retrofitted the Rouge facility in 2023 so that it would have the annual capacity of the F-150 Lightning. Up to 150,000. However, demand has not kept up. Although EV sales rose 55 percent last year, this it didn’t sell that quickly as before.
The company said it expects electric vehicle sales to continue to grow globally this year, but at a slower pace than previously expected. With this in mind, as well as the fact that Ford is developing a new generation of EVs, the company has decided to stop production of the F-150 Lightning for the foreseeable future.
It’s not the only EV that Ford has scaled back. In November he reduced production Mustang Mach-E.
“We use our manufacturing flexibility to offer customers options while balancing growth and profitability. “Customers love the F-150 Lightning, America’s best-selling EV pickup,” said Ford President and CEO Jim Farley. “We see a bright future for dedicated consumer electric vehicles, especially with our digitally advanced EVs and Access to Tesla’s charging network starting this quarter.”
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