Ford

March 13th to be exact, according to CNBC. That’s almost a month after Ford ordered a temporary halt on production and delivery of the F-150 Lightning in response to a battery fire in one of its factory lots. There hasn’t been a formal recall, and Ford’s battery supplier is claiming innocence in the whole matter. Tensions are high around EVs and batteries, so Ford needs to be super cautious as it restarts production for its most important vehicle in its lineup.

The fire took place February 4th at a holding lot in Michigan during a pre-delivery quality inspection and “spread to another vehicle,” a Ford spokesperson told Automotive News. The automaker recently extended its temporary halt on production and shipment until at least the end of next week.

We don’t know what’s wrong with the battery, but we do know that Ford has put a temporary halt on production and shipment of its popular electric pickup. There’s no recall, no reported incidents, and no stop-sale order to dealers, so it’s a bit of a mystery at the moment. Ford CEO Jim Farley is reportedly cracking down on quality issues at the automaker, so this could be an example of Ford trying to get ahead of the problem before it gets worse.

Ford bumped the price of its popular F-150 Lightning EV in August up by $7,000, and now Bloomberg and Automotive News report that the fleet-focused Lightning Pro just jumped in price by another $5K. It now starts at $51,974, plus the $1,795 delivery fee.

The Blue Oval company tripled the number of electric vehicles sold last month, led by robust demand for the F-150 Lightning truck. Ford’s share of the overall EV market is also up 3.1 percentage points over last year with 7.0 percent share — which still places it as a distant second to Tesla. BlueCruise, the company’s hands-free driver assist system for highways, is being used by 83,000 customers, who have used it for over 21 million miles.

Running out of semiconductors is one thing, but running out of your own iconic nameplates is just downright brutal. The Wall Street Journal reports badge and nameplate shortages are impacting the automaker’s popular F-series pickup lineup, delaying deliveries and causing general chaos.