Electric cars are often criticized for having large lithium batteries that can catch fire, and one such case happened to Ford at its Rouge Electric Vehicle Center during an inspection of an electric pickup truck Ford F-150 Lightning February 4 this year. It’s a very important model for the automaker and it’s an event it definitely doesn’t need. Ford is the second largest manufacturer of electric cars in the US after Tesla and has more than 200,000 reservations for this pickup truck. However, it cannot translate its high popularity into a large number of completed sales, because just like Tesla years ago with the Model 3, Ford is also suffering from “production hell” and can only produce 2000-2400 cars per month. At this rate, he would handle today’s orders for around 8 years (if no new ones came in during that time).
Ford is very serious about electromobility and intends to invest 3.5 billion USD in the construction of a new LFP battery factory in Michigan. It won’t open until 2026, however, LFP batteries will find their way into the cheaper Mustang Mach-E variants already this year, and they should appear in the F-150 Lightning pickup next year. Compared to the currently used NMC, they have a significantly lower energy density (the cars will become heavier, the LFP with less kWh will weigh roughly the same as the Long Range version with NMC with more kWh), but they are cheaper, more resistant to fire, and have a much longer service life and they are a bit more ecological (they do not have cobalt or nickel). They are also supposed to enable faster charging and don’t mind being charged to 100%, on the other hand, they have less resistance to cold and frost.
Speaking of fires, Stellantis is recalling 340,000 2500 to 5500 RAMs with the 6.7 liter Cummins diesel engine. The faulty heating relay has already been the subject of two recalls and there are still problems with it. Now the recall will be the third, they will be replaced with a new generation. Because of the part, 6 cars have already caught fire (5 times with the engine running).
