Ford Confirms Why It Is Holding Various Pickups At Sites Near Detroit

Indeed, Ford has been holding off sending out its Lightning EV and some of its standard ICE-version pickups.  Torque News has reported on this story twice in the last ten days, and it is nice to know there is an answer. Torque News now knows why.

In the last couple of weeks, Torque News has reported that Ford is busily storing pickup trucks at various sites in and around Detroit. Frankly, we wondered why Blue Oval was holding its products.

Cybertruck controversy; Cybertruck is involved in controversey

Indeed, holding its products harkened back to a few years ago when supply chain issues plagued the automaker and it built up as many vehicles as it could while it awaited parts that would enable Ford to finish them up and send them on their way.

Why we wondered now, after seeing it reported by the Ford Authority, was the automaker still stashing its products away at its own test track as well as a significant private track?

We finally did get an answer that sounds pretty good.

We don’t know if you remember comments by Ford’s CEO Jim Farley. A few weeks ago, he commented that there were still quality issues with the automaker's key product—pickup trucks—and he promised to hold pickups until they were ready to go.

That’s exactly what has happened this time around. Ford was quite open about it through the Ford Authority (FA).

It seems that two problems have beset the Blue Oval. They are:

1. Ford put a quick sales hold on its Ford F-150 Lightning EVs. The reason is an issue with the EV pickup’s headlights. Ford held shipping them out while it worked out the problem says the FA.
2. Ford has been working its way through a number of quality issues that have arisen as the automaker works to ensure that ICE-engined versions of its pickups are worked on so that they are in good shape.

It is funny, notes FA, that the sales hold is still in effect. It was only put in place a couple of weeks ago, but as FA notes, the automaker won’t release the F-150 Lightnings until it is “confident that all potential quality issues have been resolved.”

If you live in Ford’s test track or of the Mid-American Speedway you will continue to see lots of 2024 Ford F-150 Lightning pickups stored at various spots.

Interestingly, Ford admits it is sitting on extra inventory as demand for its EV pickups has slowed. At first, Ford had planned to balance its EV output based on a production run of about 600,000 per year. Now, Ford has decided to base its vehicle build reports on a production run of about half the 600K – or perhaps less – which means that while Ford is sitting on a major base of vehicles, it is not adding to them.

On a more positive note, Torque News reported that Ford’s Q3 output of EVs has jumped.

Ford Motor Photo

Marc Stern has been an automotive writer since 1971. His automotive articles have appeared in venues including Popular Mechanics, Mechanix Illustrated, AutoWeek, SuperStock, Trailer Life, Old Cars Weekly, Special Interest Autos, and others. You can follow Marc on Twitter or Facebook.