New Delhi: Ford F-150 Lightning production will remain paused for the coming period. Following the devastating fire at Noveli’s aluminium plant in Oswego, New York, the carmaker are shifting their production priorities, increasing ICE and hybrid D-Series output in the first quarter of 2026. 

The carmaker are planning to make 50,000 more trucks next year to meet “strong customer demand” along with recovering the production losses due to fire. Ford are hence looking at making more ICE and hybrid trucks, which are more profitable and employ much less aluminium than Lightning. 

The fire occurred on September 16th and damaged the building and could cost the Blue Oval a figure around $ 1 billion as it recovers from disruptions. The F-150 uses a lot of aluminium for its making and Ford are looking for profits, of course.

How is Ford going to invest and distribute employees?

Ford F-150

The move does mean that the employees at Ford’s Rouge Electric Vehicle Center, where it makes the Lightning, will shift to a new third crew in order to make the ICE pickups at Ford’s Dearborn Truck plant. The carmaker will also hire more workers to support the production increase, creating around 900 new jobs.

Ford will also increase their output at the Kentucky Truck plant, where the company will hire 100 new employees. The carmaker is also making around $ 60 million investment in the facility that will result in an extra truck being built every hour, which converts to 5,000 in a year. 

It is unclear how long the Lightning production will be paused. Sales for the electric truck were up 40 per cent in Q3 of 2025, with Ford selling around 10,000 pickups. Lightning sales are up by just a single per cent for the 2026 model year, with the carmaker selling around 23,034 units thus far. 

That is a very small amount compared to the rest of the F-Series portfolio. Ford have sold around 2,00,000 ICE and hybrid trucks in the last quarter and have sold around 60,000 of them through September, an increase of 13 per cent.