Ford to halt production of F-150 Lightning EV pickup trucks for six weeks

DETROIT: Ford Motor will halt production of its F-150 Lightning electric vehicle pickup trucks for six weeks from Nov 18 to Jan 6, the Dearborn automaker said on Thursday.

Ford's US plants are closed for a holiday week in December.

"We continue to adjust production for an optimal mix of sales growth and profitability," a Ford spokesman said.

Ford has been scaling back its EV plans, saying in August it was killing a planned three-row electric SUV and pushing back a new electric version of its best-selling F-150 pickup.

The company has instead thrown more investment into hybrid vehicles, which combine an electric motor with a gasoline engine.

Ford said this month its Ford-brand US EV sales are up 45% this year and sales of F-150 Lightning more than doubled to 7,100 in the three months ending Sept 30 - thought they still represent just 3.6% of all F-Series pickup sales.

The company in April cut production of the F-150 Lightning to one shift after it announced in October 2023 it would temporarily cut one of three shifts at its Michigan plant.

CEO Jim Farley has said one of the main solutions to slowing EV sales growth is bringing production costs down.

That is a key goal for the future health of the company, which is expected to lose about US$5 billion on EVs this year alone.

Ford this week reported third-quarter net income of US$900 million, or 22 cents per share, hurt by a US$1 billion charge it took over the decision to cancel production of the three-row EV SUV in August.

In another development, Farley has told employees that the automaker needs to speed efforts to improve quality and lower costs, and that manager bonuses, which are tied to those metrics, would be slashed to 65% of their total, according to three people familiar with the matter.

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 made the announcement about the lowered bonuses at a town hall on Wednesday.

"I'm proud of the progress but we're not satisfied at all," Farley said in a third-quarter earnings presentation on Monday.

Ford executives said on Monday that the company would meet only the lower end of its annual guidance.

Bonuses may change depending on the company's fourth-quarter performance, the spokesman said.