Ford halts F-150 Lightning deliveries over ‘potential battery issue’, no consumer vehicles affected yet
Ford has issued a nationwide “stop shipment” order to all its carriers, instructing them to hold F-150 Lightnings while a potential battery issue is investigated. Ford is not aware of any incidences of the issue in the field, and has not stopped sales of the Lightning, only shipments.
The stop shipment order applies to all of Ford’s carriers, who were told earlier this week to stop shipping Lightning trucks until further notice.
Thus, this applies to cars in transit but not on dealer lots. But for current Lightning shoppers, that’s not likely to make much difference.
F-150 Lightnings are scarce at dealers currently, despite price increases, as Ford continues to fulfill its massive order list. So, many customers are waiting for vehicles to be delivered, rather than walking in to grab one off the dealer lot. Most Lightnings which make their way to dealers are already reserved, and will only be released to the public if the order holder decides not to go through with the purchase for some reason.
We heard from one Lightning order-holder who was told that their vehicle was placed on a stop shipment, though Ford had no other information to give them at the time.
After reaching out to Ford PR, we learned a little more about the issue. Here’s what they told us:
“As part of our pre-delivery quality inspections, a vehicle displayed a potential battery issue and we are holding vehicles while we investigate.”
“The potential quality issue is related to the battery. We are conducting a root cause analysis. This potential issue was identified as part of our pre-delivery quality inspections. We are not aware of any incidences of this issue in the field. There is no stop sale.”
Ford did not have further information about how many vehicles may be affected or how long this stop shipment is expected to last, but told us they would let us know as soon as they have information on the root cause.
The F-150 Lightning’s battery is supplied by SK On, a spinoff of Korean firm SK Innovation. We are not aware of any other major battery issues from SK-supplied batteries, and they have not been subject to any recalls before. We are also not aware of significant Lightning issues in the field, except for one owner whose Lightning suffered a partial battery module failure while charging at an Electrify America charger – though that seemed to be the charger’s fault, not the car’s.
Electrek’s Take
We have very little information on this yet, so we don’t want to get too far ahead of this with speculation. Ford is going big on electric vehicles, so it makes sense that they would exercise an abundance of caution, given media overreactions to anything that has to do with EVs.
But, since we have a lot of readers who are waiting for their truck orders to be fulfilled, we wanted to bring you the information about what’s happening with your orders.
The curious part is that there’s a stop shipment, but no stop sale. Thus, this could be an issue that only affects vehicles in transit, which means owners don’t really have to worry about anything. If Ford is confident to allow dealers to release vehicles to customers, at least they must not think there is any safety issue at the moment.
Or perhaps there’s an alternate, more human explanation, and Ford thinks it’s easier to hold back vehicles that are still in transit or finishing production, but that order-holders would be more perturbed if they saw their truck waiting on the dealer lot and yet they were unable to take delivery of it.
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Germany’s largest offshore wind farm under construction, EnBW’s He Dreiht, just hit a big milestone: The first enormous turbine is now up in the North Sea.
He Dreiht – which means “it spins” in Low German – is using Vestas’s massive 15 megawatt (MW) turbines, the first project in the world to install them. Just one spin of one of the rotors can generate enough electricity to power four households for an entire day.
When it’s finished, He Dreiht will have 64 mega turbines cranking out 960 megawatts (MW) of clean power – enough to supply around 1.1 million homes. And it’s being built without any government subsidies.
EnBW, one of Germany’s major energy companies, has been working in offshore wind for more than 15 years, but He Dreiht is their biggest project yet. “It will play a key role in helping us to significantly grow our renewable energy output from 6.6 GW to over 10 GW by 2030,” said Michael Class, who heads up EnBW’s generation portfolio development.
The project is a win for Vestas, too. “With the installation of the first V236-15.0 MW, we have reached an important milestone for both the He Dreiht project and our offshore ramp-up, which helps Germany build a more secure, affordable, and sustainable energy system,” said Nils de Baar, president of Vestas Northern & Central Europe.
He Dreiht is located about 85 kilometers (53 miles) northwest of Borkum and 110 kilometers (68 miles) west of Helgoland. At peak times, more than 500 workers will be out at sea building the farm, using a fleet of more than 60 ships. EnBW’s offshore team in Hamburg is running the show.
The installation process is a major operation. The 64 foundations were already set in the seabed last year. Parts for the turbines are loaded onto the installation vessel Wind Orca in Esbjerg, Denmark, and shipped out in a 12-hour journey to the construction site. From there, the turbines are lifted into place. Meanwhile, crews are also working on internal wind farm cabling.
A partner consortium made up of Allianz Capital Partners, AIP, and Norges Bank Investment Management owns 49.9% of the shares in He Dreiht.
Read more: Trump admin halts $5 billion NY offshore wind project mid-build
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Tesla has released a quick update about its Tesla Semi factory in Nevada. It says that it is on track for volume production of the electric semi truck in 2026.
The Tesla Semi was first scheduled to go into production in 2019, but it has faced numerous delays.
Now, it appears that there is finally some momentum to bring it to volume production.
For the last two years, Tesla has been working to build a new factory next to Gigafactory Nevada, where it builds the battery packs and drive units for most of its electric vehicles built in North America.
Today, Tesla released a “progress update on the factory, confirming that it finished building and it’s now working on deploying the production lines:
Tesla had previously mentioned aiming for volume production by 2025, but it is now only talking about starting production toward the end of the year and ramping up next year.
The automaker reiterated its planned production capacity of 50,000 units.
We recently reported that an early Tesla Semi customer, Ryder, stated that the electric truck program is experiencing more delays and a price increase described as “dramatic.”
They now expect to take deliveries of their first trucks later in 2026 and said that the price has increased “dramatically,” leading them to scale back their pilot program from 42 to 18 Tesla Semi trucks.
When originally unveiling the Tesla Semi in 2017, the automaker mentioned prices of $150,000 for a 300-mile range truck and $180,000 for the 500-mile version. Tesla also took orders for a “Founder’s Series Semi” at $200,000.
However, Tesla didn’t update the prices when launching the “production version” of the truck in late 2022. Price increases have been speculated, but the company has never confirmed them.
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Vietnamese solar panel maker Boviet Solar just opened the doors to its first US factory — a huge new PV module plant in Greenville, North Carolina.
The company dropped $294 million into the state-of-the-art facility, which will pump out Boviet’s Gamma Series monofacial and Vega Series bifacial solar panels. They’re using advanced PERC and N-Type solar cell tech, which basically means these panels are built to deliver higher efficiency and better performance across residential, commercial, industrial, and utility-scale projects.
The Greenville factory’s first phase is now online with an annual PV module output capacity of 2 gigawatts (GW). For Phase 2, which is scheduled to come online in the second half of 2026, Boviet will invest another $100 million to add 600,000 square feet and ramp up to another 2 GW. It will make high-efficiency solar cells.
Once both phases are complete, Boviet’s campus will cover more than 1 million square feet of manufacturing and R&D space. It’s one of the biggest clean energy manufacturing projects North Carolina has ever seen.
The jobs impact is significant, too. The first phase will create 460 skilled local jobs. Phase 2 is expected to add another 908, bringing the total to over 1,300 direct jobs, plus nearly 2,000 more indirect jobs across the region. That’s good news for Pitt County’s economy, real estate market, and workforce training programs.
“This facility is not just creating jobs, but creating opportunity, innovation, and a stronger foundation for eastern North Carolina,” said Senator Kandie Smith. Governor Josh Stein added that Boviet Solar’s move shows how North Carolina is leading the way in clean energy growth.
Read more: Thomas Built Buses debuts its next-gen electric school bus
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