What's going on with Ford's flagship F-150 electric pickup truck? Its sales in the third quarter were nearly halved, and it's still undergoing quality inspections.

On Wednesday, Ford announced that its US sales in the third quarter increased by 7.7% year-on-year to over 500,000 vehicles, mainly due to the F-series pickup trucks maintaining their leading position in the industry. The overall sales for the first nine months of this year increased by 9.2% year-on-year.

Some analysts believe that this is basically in line with Wall Street's expectations for Ford's third-quarter sales, but lower than the forecasted 15% to 16% year-on-year growth for the entire industry in the third quarter.

In the highly anticipated electric vehicle field, Ford's electric vehicle sales in the third quarter increased by 14.8% year-on-year to nearly 21,000 vehicles, reaching a new historical high for the company. The majority of these sales came from the Mustang Mach-E crossover and the E-Transit cargo van.

However, the sales of Ford's iconic F-150 Lightning all-electric pickup truck plummeted by 46% year-on-year. Only 3,503 units were sold in the third quarter, and a total of 12,260 units were sold in the first nine months of this year. The 2024 model was released in September.

Ford explained that the factory had been shut down for six weeks to expand production capacity, and it only resumed production in the first week of August. In addition, additional "quality inspections" also caused delivery delays, which affected the sales of the F-150 Lightning all-electric pickup truck.

Ford's factory in Dearborn, Michigan, the "headquarters stronghold," was closed for six weeks this summer to triple the annual production capacity of the F-150 Lightning all-electric pickup truck to 150,000 units.

However, it was discovered by the media that since resuming operations in early August, Ford has suspended deliveries of the F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck for unknown "quality evaluations." At the same time, in order to compete with Tesla, Ford reduced the price of the Lightning pickup truck by up to 17% in July to cope with the slowdown in the growth of electric vehicle sales in the US market.

A Ford spokesperson stated that additional quality inspections are being conducted on the F-150 Lightning at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center, the electric vehicle-exclusive factory in Michigan. "Therefore, since we restarted the factory and increased production capacity, the delivery of this model has been delayed, and we expect the flow to improve in the fourth quarter."

Ford sales analyst Erich Merkle also mentioned that the Lightning factory's production expansion during the summer is similar to the expansion of the Mustang Mach-E crossover electric vehicle, which was first launched in 2021, in the first quarter of this year. At that time, the sales of the Mach-E increased by a staggering 43% year-on-year, setting a quarterly sales record.

On Monday of this week, a local media outlet in Detroit was the first to exclusively report that Ford's US dealers had their inventory orders for the 2023 model of the F-150 Lightning all-electric pickup truck canceled, citing the reason of "accepting additional quality inspections" as mentioned above. Ford can only confirm that "the cancellation of orders is not related to inspection and safety issues," but cannot confirm the number of orders canceled. A company spokesperson stated at the time:

"Ford is currently working to align the supply and demand of the 2023 model and is preparing to shift production to the 2024 model Lightning electric pickup later this year.

Therefore, we have canceled some dealer inventory orders for the 2023 model that were not submitted as pre-sales, but customer orders have not been canceled.

The manufacturing team is crucial to our quality work as they are the last line of defense in delivering products to customers. We have identified additional areas where we believe additional inspections are necessary to improve production capacity."

Earlier this year, a fire occurred at a Ford car storage site in Dearborn, causing a five-week production halt for the F-150 Lightning as the fire destroyed one vehicle of this model and spread to two others. Ford at the time attributed the issue to the Lightning model's batteries produced by South Korean supplier SK On in Atlanta, rather than the vehicle assembly process. Production of this model resumed in March.

However, in August, a Canadian owner complained to the media that in July, he was unable to charge the battery at two different charging stations and was forced to abandon the F-150 Lightning electric pickup in Minnesota, USA, calling it a "nightmare."

Subsequently, Ford CEO Jim Farley led the executive team on a road trip test and admitted that "charging is very challenging":

"This is a good reality check for the challenges our customers face, the importance of fast charging, and what measures we need to take to improve the charging experience."

During the release of the third-quarter earnings report, CEO Farley stated that American buyers are hesitant due to the high prices of electric vehicles, and Ford's electric vehicle sales accounted for only about 3% of the company's total sales of approximately 1.5 million vehicles in the first nine months of this year, with the third quarter accounting for 4.2%.

He also mentioned that Ford will focus on hybrid vehicles in the future, with sales expected to quadruple in the next five years compared to the present:

"Compared to the all-electric F-150 Lightning, full-size truck owners may be more willing to quickly transition to hybrid vehicles. This (F-150 Hybrid model) will be a key part of Ford's future F-150 sales strategy."

Zerohedge, a financial blog known for its sharp tongue, believes that Ford is not only facing an electric vehicle price war initiated by Tesla but also dealing with other issues related to the F-150 electric pickup, making it vulnerable from both sides. The latest news of "quality inspections" delaying deliveries may pose a major challenge for Ford and open the door for Tesla's upcoming Cybertruck electric pickup.

Previously, there have been voices of analysis pointing out that after experiencing a rare decline in quarter-on-quarter sales and deliveries, Tesla may rely on the Cybertruck and the "affordable masterpiece" Model 3 to rise again and drive growth in the fourth quarter and next year. Before the Friday session, Ford's stock price had fallen for five consecutive days, with a cumulative decline of over 5% during this period, reaching its lowest level in a month since the end of August.