Ford Truck Fire May Threaten Sales

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Apr 21, 7:30AM EDT

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Ford Truck Fire May Threaten Sales — © shaunl / iStock Unreleased via Getty Images

It was a scene no car company wants to witness. A vehicle that represents its future more than any other, engulfed by fire, posted on an online news site. A video obtained by CNBC under Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act from the Dearborn Police Department showed a Ford F-150 Lightning, Ford’s flagship electric vehicle (EV), on fire in a parking lot. It was a raging fire that also engulfed two other nearby vehicles. One comment on the video read, “There is a reason why Ford calls it ‘Lightning.’” (These are the most dangerous cars on the road today.)
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Ford blamed the fire on the battery cell production supplier SK On. It would seem tests of components of the Lightning had been inadequate. Ford has admitted its quality problems are a major issue and may take two years to fix. In the meantime, consumers may well question the safety of the vehicle. Ford Executive Chair Bill Ford said the Lightning was the most important product launch during his time as a Ford employee. He ought to regret that comment.
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Unfortunately, the video of the fire happened the same day Ford announced it would sell the Lightning in what it called Europe’s EV capital. Ford management commented: “The electric version of America’s best-selling pickup is going to Norway in response to overwhelming public demand.” Bad luck.

Ford has bungled the Lightning launch several times. The battery problem caused Ford to shut down the Lightning assembly line for over a month. Ford admitted to the trouble.
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Ford also has increased the price of the Lightning four times in 19 months. According to car evaluation site Kelley Blue Book: “The most costly is now comically close to $100,000 as if Ford’s accountants can’t bring themselves to admit it’s a 6-figure price now.” The price of the entry-level Lightning is now $60,000. That prices it out of the market for many traditional pickup buyers.
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Ford might have benefited from being early to market with the Lighting. Tesla has not launched its electric pickup. Neither have rivals Chevy or Ram. Ford’s early mover edge may disappear if each of these can avoid an engine fire problem.

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.