Ford cutting 2024 F-150 Lightning production plans by half, suppliers told

Ford Motor Co. is dialing back planned output of the electric F-150 Lightning pickup by half next year because of "changing market demand," a steep pullback of a high-profile nameplate the automaker spent most of this year working to build in larger numbers.

According to a planning memo obtained by Automotive News, Ford has told suppliers to prepare for average volume of around 1,600 Lightnings a week at its Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, Mich., starting in January. It had planned to assemble an average of 3,200 a week, toward an annual goal of 150,000.

Output of gasoline-powered pickups at plants in Michigan and Missouri is expected to be essentially unchanged, the company said in the memo.

Ford, in a statement Monday, said it "will continue to match production to customer demand."

The news comes amid an industrywide pullback in EV investment due to slower-than-expected sales growth.

Ford in October temporarily idled one of three shifts at the Lightning plant, affecting about 700 workers.

The supplier memo said Ford was to reach a goal of 3,200 Lightnings per week by Oct. 30 of this year, although it’s unclear how that was affected by the idled shift. A spokesperson declined to say what the current weekly output was.

Ford added that third shift late last year as part of an effort to triple production to an annual run rate of 150,000 by this fall. To reach that goal, the plant was idled for six weeks in early 2023 as the company made the facility more than 70 percent larger.

"The reality is clear," Kumar Galhotra, now Ford's COO, said in January 2022. "People are ready for an all-electric F-150, and Ford is pulling out all the stops to scale our operations and increase production capacity."

Recently, though, EV demand has slowed, prompting Ford and other automakers to rethink ambitious production targets. The cuts have also upended suppliers that have invested millions of dollars in tooling and equipment to meet automaker's plans. 

Ford has delayed roughly $12 billion in EV investments and postponed some production targets. The company has said it was reducing some Mustang Mach-E production and postponing opening one of two battery plants planned in Kentucky with partner SK On.

"The narrative has taken over that EVs aren't growing; they're growing," CFO John Lawler said in October while announcing Ford's third-quarter earnings. "It's just growing at a slower pace than the industry and, quite frankly, we expected."

Despite the pullback, Lightning sales continue to increase. Ford sold 4,393 of the trucks in November — a monthly record, according to CEO Jim Farley. U.S. sales have jumped 54 percent to 20,365 this year through November.