Lightning production plant being paused due to aluminum plant fire 😕

[Albern]

Do or die Ford. Why not cancel a line of the ICE F-Series instead?

Also, isn't aluminum a commodity? Why bottleneck to a single-sourced supplier?

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[Effonefiddy Lightning]

Do or die Ford. Why not cancel a line of the ICE F-Series instead?

Also, isn't aluminum a commodity? Why bottleneck to a single-sourced supplier?

By line you mean trim level? I believe they sell more than the Lightning, they wouldn't do that.

 

[RLXXI]

The fire is a handy out for Ford to get back to common sense manufacturing. Build+sell=profit.

They no longer have the EPA chokehold mandating what they can build. Wouldn't surprise me if they quit building EV's completely.

I hope I'm completely wrong.

 

[arod412]

Just wait until gas/oil goes up....all of a sudden there is a demand and they will get back to making lighting. Thats how I see it.

It is a bummer with shutting down the lighting, but I think that they need to figure out a way to reduce pricing so it can sell more and make more from it.

 

[PreservedSwine]

The fire is a handy out for Ford to get back to common sense manufacturing. Build+sell=profit.

They no longer have the EPA chokehold mandating what they can build. Wouldn't surprise me if they quit building EV's completely.

I hope I'm completely wrong.

The market agrees, as reflected in the stock movement after this news dropped.
if the government simply stayed out of it, instead of forcing the issue, there wouldn't be such ingrained resistance and strong ev resentment among so many people.
Personally love my Lightning. It's impossible not to after driving it.
I still believe things will work themselves out. It's simply better.

 

[RLXXI]

Just wait until gas/oil goes up....all of a sudden there is a demand and they will get back to making lighting. Thats how I see it.

It is a bummer with shutting down the lighting, but I think that they need to figure out a way to reduce pricing so it can sell more and make more from it.

Gas around me has been steady falling, it's dropped about $0.50/gal in two months. That's also a driving factor, pun not intended.

Look at it like this, if they do stop making them, it'll make all of our trucks a limited edition. Might make for a good future investment.

 

[PJnc284]

Heck I hope it stays low. Makes my fishing trips a lot cheaper. 80-90 gallons of E-Free 93 still ain't cheap.

 

[Altivec]

Canada has plenty aluminum but....

Do or die Ford. Why not cancel a line of the ICE F-Series instead?

Also, isn't aluminum a commodity? Why bottleneck to a single-sourced supplier?

Unfortunately, The US is only capable of producing a small percentage of the aluminum manufactures require so there is a huge bottleneck. Tariffs for buying aluminium from other countries would eat up all the profit and therefor not worth it. Too bad a deal with Canada seems so unachievable. Much better than having US companies shut production lines and lose billions.

 

[flyct]

I fear that if we abandon EVs as a country China will eat our lunch. They are so far ahead of us. I fear if we don't embrace EV's now we will never catch up.

40% of new vehicle sales in China are EVs and almost 100% of motorbikes are electric. Everyone who visits comments on how quiet the streets are and how pollution free with all the EV traffic.

I fear we as a country are going back to the "good old 50's".

 

[RickLightning]

Nobody is abandoning EVs. Nonsense.

A neighbor of mine is a Ford executive. Saw him recently, he owns a Mach-E and a Lightning, just like us. I said "hey, your Lightning is going to be a collectible, with no more being made." He laughed, because it is a ridiculous statement.

I expect Lightning production to resume within weeks of the aluminum plant resuming full production.

 

[John Becker]

Unless I'm missing something here, it also appears that the last 2025 models have, or are rolling off of the assembly line now. When production restarts in Q1, wouldn't it be the 2026 model?

 

[RLXXI]

Unless I'm missing something here, it also appears that the last 2025 models have, or are rolling off of the assembly line now. When production restarts in Q1, wouldn't it be the 2026 model?

They typically begin a new model before the end of the year.

What's typical these days?

 

[TaxmanHog]

Unless I'm missing something here, it also appears that the last 2025 models have, or are rolling off of the assembly line now. When production restarts in Q1, wouldn't it be the 2026 model?

That's a flexible situation, if the factory can't fulfill orders placed on 25's by the planned turn over, they will cancel those builds and transfer the buyers into an equivalent MY26 version with price protection.

That last video I listened to from Tim indicated they were taking orders on both 25 and 26, but cautioned his customers to consider placing for 26 instead as it's likely they won't meet the 25 goals, more so with this pause in production.

In years past, cut over happened in October or November and now recently it was planned for December.

 

[Pioneer74]

Unless I'm missing something here, it also appears that the last 2025 models have, or are rolling off of the assembly line now. When production restarts in Q1, wouldn't it be the 2026 model?

They would have to be 26's. You can't legally produce a previous calender year model.

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