Ford identifies cause of F-150 Lightning battery issue, production restarts in ‘a few weeks’ (updated)
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. It has also paused production while the issue is investigated.
Update: Ford has identified what they believe to be the cause of the issue, and expects to have production started in “a few weeks” and that they do not think already-delivered customer vehicles are affected.
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. Many customers are waiting for vehicles to be delivered, rather than being able to walk in and 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 last week 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 Ford 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 pause is expected to last but told us it would let us know as soon as it has information on the root cause.
Update: Ford PR reached out with more information stating that they have discovered the root cause of the problem. Here’s their new statement:
We are suspending production at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center through at least the end of next week. During a standard Lightning pre-delivery quality inspection, one vehicle displayed a battery issue. We believe we have identified the root cause of this issue. By the end of next week, we expect to conclude our investigation and apply what we learn to the truck’s battery production process; this could take a few weeks. We will continue holding already-produced vehicles while we work through engineering and process updates.
We are not aware of any incidents of this issue in the field and do not believe F-150 Lightnings already in customers’ hands are affected by this issue.
We asked specifically whether Ford thinks this will result in a recall, and Ford reiterated that they do not believe any customer Lightnings are affected.
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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Kia’s electric SUVs are taking over. The EV3 is the best-selling retail EV in the UK this year, giving Kia its strongest sales start since it arrived 34 years ago. And it’s not just in the UK. Kia just had its best first quarter globally since it started selling cars in 1962.
Kia EV3 is the best-selling EV in the UK through March
In March, Kia sold a record nearly 20,000 vehicles in the UK, making it the fourth best-selling brand. It was also the second top-seller of electrified vehicles (EVs, PHEVs, and HEVs), accounting for over 55% of sales.
The EV3 remained the best-selling retail EV in the UK last month. Including the EV6, three-row EV9, and Niro EV, electric vehicles represented 21% of Kia’s UK sales in March.
Kia said the EV3 “started with a bang” in January, darting out as the UK’s most popular EV in retail sales. Through March, Kia’s electric SUV has held on to the crown. With the EV3 rolling out, Kia sold over 7,000 electric cars through March, nearly 50% more than in Q1 2024.
The EV3 was the best-selling retail EV in the UK in the first quarter and the fourth best-selling EV overall, including commercial vehicles.
Starting at £33,005 ($42,500), Kia said it’s the “brand’s most affordable EV yet.” It’s available with two battery packs, 58.3 kWh or 81.48 kWh, good for 430 km (270 miles) and 599 km (375 miles) of WLTP range, respectively.
With new EVs on the way, this could be just the start. Kia is launching several new EVs in the UK this year, including the EV4 sedan (and hatchback) and EV5 SUV. It also confirmed that the first PV5 electric vans will be delivered to customers by the end of the year.
Electrek’s Take
Globally, Kia sold a record 772,351 vehicles in the first quarter, its best since it started selling cars in 1962. With the new EV4, the brand’s first electric sedan and hatchback, launching this year, Kia looks to build on its momentum in 2025.
Kia has also made it very clear that it wants to be a global leader in the electric van market with its new Platform Beyond Vehicle (PBV) business, starting with the PV5 later this year.
Earlier today, we learned Kia’s midsize electric SUV, the EV5, is the fourth best-selling EV in Australia through March, outselling every BYD vehicle (at least for now). The EV5 is rolling out to new markets this year, including Canada, the UK, South Korea, and Mexico. However, it will not arrive in the US.
For those in the US, there are still a few Kia EVs to look forward to. Kia is launching the EV4 globally, including in the US, later this year. Although no date has been set, Kia confirmed the EV3 is also coming. It’s expected to arrive in mid-2026.
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Environment
Podcast: Tesla’s disastrous deliveries, more Trump tariffs, EV delivery numbers, and more
In the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy. In this week’s episode, we discuss Tesla’s disastrous deliveries, more Trump tariffs, EV delivery numbers, and more.
The show is live every Friday at 4 p.m. ET on Electrek’s YouTube channel.
As a reminder, we’ll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in.
After the show ends at around 5 p.m. ET, the video will be archived on YouTube and the audio on all your favorite podcast apps:
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Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the podcast:
Here’s the live stream for today’s episode starting at 4:00 p.m. ET (or the video after 5 p.m. ET):
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Charging your EV in freezing weather could soon become dramatically faster, thanks to a big breakthrough from the University of Michigan engineers.
Neil Dasgupta, U-M associate professor of mechanical engineering and materials science and engineering and corresponding author of a study published in Joule, and his team have developed an innovative battery structure and coating that can boost lithium-ion EV battery charging speeds by a whopping 500%, even at frigid temperatures as low as 14F (-10C). “Charging an EV battery takes 30 to 40 minutes even for aggressive fast charging, and that time increases to over an hour in the winter,” Dasgupta explained. “This is the pain point we want to address.”
Freezing weather has traditionally been harsh on EV batteries because it slows down the movement of lithium ions, resulting in slower charging speeds and reduced battery life. Automakers have tried thickening battery electrodes to extend driving range, but this makes some of the lithium hard to access, making charging even slower.
Previously, Dasgupta’s group sped up battery charging using lasers to carve pathways around 40 microns in size into the graphite anode. This allowed lithium ions to reach deeper into the battery more quickly. However, cold-weather performance still lagged because a chemical layer formed on the electrodes, blocking the ions. Dasgupta compares this barrier to “trying to cut cold butter,” making charging inefficient.
To solve this, the team coated the battery with a thin, glassy material made of lithium borate-carbonate—only 20 nanometers thick—which prevented the problematic chemical layer from forming. Combined with the microscopic channels, the results were groundbreaking: the modified batteries retained 97% of their capacity even after 100 fast-charging cycles in freezing temperatures.
“We envision this approach as something that EV battery manufacturers could adopt without major changes to existing factories,” Dasgupta noted. “For the first time, we’ve shown a pathway to simultaneously achieve extreme fast charging at low temperatures, without sacrificing the energy density of the lithium-ion battery.”
This innovation could tackle one of the biggest concerns holding potential EV buyers back.
The new battery tech is moving closer to commercialization, supported by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation’s Michigan Translational Research and Commercialization (MTRAC) Advanced Transportation Innovation Hub. The research devices were built at U-M’s Battery Lab and studied with help from the Michigan Center for Materials Characterization.
U-M Innovation Partnerships assisted the team in applying for patents, and Arbor Battery Innovations has licensed the technology for market deployment. Dasgupta and the University of Michigan hold financial stakes in Arbor Battery Innovations.
Read more: California now has nearly 50% more EV chargers than gas nozzles
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