Ford F-150 Lightning fires that prompted recall caught on police video

Newly released footage of the Ford F-150 Lightning that burned in one of the company’s holding lots in February this year has been made public care of CNBC, who obtained it from the Dearborn, Mich., police department via a FOIA request. It shows the conflagration that destroyed multiple vehicles and prompted an urgent recall of 18 trucks that had already been manufactured with what Ford described as a defect in the battery itself. In this video, we can see the fire burning at the end of a row of trucks awaiting shipment from Ford’s Rouge Electric Vehicle Center, where production was halted for nearly a month following the incident.

Ford said the incident took place during a quality check. After the fire, Ford put out a stop-build and stop-ship order for the Lightning while it investigated the issue. On March 2, Ford announced the end of its investigation and announced that production would restart March 13. The company recalled 18 F-150 trucks due to a “battery cell manufacturing defect” introduced into several trucks over a four-week period starting at the end of last year.

“The root cause identified was related to battery cell production at the SK On plant in Georgia,” a company spokesperson said in March. “Ford is not aware of any reports of accident or injury related to this recall. Together with SK On, we have confirmed the root causes and have implemented quality actions. Production is on track to resume Monday with clean stock of battery packs.”

SK On has been Ford’s battery supplier since the start of production. All 18 of the trucks identified during Ford’s investigation had their original battery packs replaced, which should have eliminated any possibility of the defect presenting itself after delivery. For more background information, a timeline of the incident and subsequent recall are available in our original coverage.