Production of the Ford F-150 Lightning will remain temporarily halted for the foreseeable future. Following the devastating fire at Novelis’ aluminum plant in Oswego, New York, the automaker will change its production priorities, increasing production of the gas and hybrid F-Series in the first quarter of 2026.
The automaker plans to build more than 50,000 additional trucks next year “to meet strong customer demand and offset production losses resulting from the fire.” Ford It prioritizes gas and hybrid trucks because they are “more profitable” for the automaker and “use less aluminum” than the Lightning.
The fire, which occurred on September 16, caused extensive damage to the building and could cost the Blue Oval up to $1 billion as it recovers from the disruption. the F-150 It uses a lot of aluminum in its construction, so prioritizing profitable models that use less aluminum makes sense given the automaker’s position.
The move means staff at Ford’s Rouge Electric Vehicle Center, where it builds the car Lightningwill be moved to a new third crew to build gas-powered pickup trucks at the automaker’s Dearborn truck plant. The automaker will also hire additional workers to support increased production, creating up to 900 new jobs.
Photo by: Ford
Ford will also increase production at its truck plant in Kentucky, where the company will hire 100 new employees. The automaker is also investing $60 million in the facility that will result in the building of an additional truck every hour, or more than 5,000 per year.
It’s unclear how long Ford will continue pausing Lightning production. Electric truck sales rose nearly 40 percent in the third quarter of 2025, with Ford selling just over 10,000 pickup trucks. Lightning sales are up just 1.0 percent for 2026, with the automaker selling 23,034 vehicles so far this year.
That’s a small amount compared to the rest of the F-Series lineup. Ford sold nearly 200,000 gas and hybrid trucks last quarter and sold nearly 600,000 of them through the end of September, up 13 percent. Ford has to make what people want.
