Ford halts production of F-150 EVs after SK On battery fire

F-150 Lightning trucks under production at Ford's plant in Dearborn, Michigan. The automaker suspended the production after its battery, made by SK On, caught fire. [AFP/YONHAP]

Ford Motor has suspended production of its F-150 Lightning electric pickups after a battery caught fire, which was manufactured by SK On.

The investigation will continue until at least the end of next week.

The Michigan-based company said in a statement that a truck caught fire at an outdoor lot nearby its Dearborn plant during a pre-delivery quality inspection on Feb. 4

The truck with the battery problem and two nearby vehicles were damaged by the fire. The automaker has paused production and shipment since then.

“By the end of next week, we expect to conclude our investigation and apply what we learn to the truck's battery production processes,” Ford said in the statement.

Ford also added that it has no reason to believe electric pickups already in use by customers will be affected by the battery issue.

SK On, a fully-owned subsidiary of SK Innovation, explained that the fire is a one-off issue, and no cases were reported for other vehicles.

"We found out the cause of the fire, and already came up with measures to prevent a recurrence," SK On said in a statement.

The electric truck is equipped with NCM9 — nickel, cobalt and manganese — batteries made in SK On's Georgia plant.

First introduced in April last year, Ford has sold 18,000 Lightning pickups so far. It has a backlog of more than 200,000 orders.

SK On and Ford established an $11.4-billion joint venture called BlueOvalSK with the aim of building three more factories in Kentucky and Tennessee.

But their plan of building a joint battery plant in Turkey fell through recently. The automaker is now in talks with LG Energy Solution instead.

In 2019, General Motors recalled some 143,000 Bolt EVs over fire risks that were equipped with LG Energy Solution's batteries. LG Energy and LG Electronics paid a total of 1.4 trillion won ($1.1 billion) to the U.S. car maker.

General Motors halted the production of Bolts in September 2021 and resumed it in April last year.

SK Innovation shares closed at 160,000 won Thursday, up 3.2 percent from the previous trading day.

It dropped 7.5 percent Wednesday after Ford announced the production halt.

BY SARAH CHEA [chea.sarah@joongang.co.kr]