Tesla Cybertruck Deliveries Paused While Ford F-150 Lightning Deliveries Resume
Following a nine-week hold on F-150 Lightning allocations to dealers, Ford has announced it will be resuming shipments. Meanwhile, Tesla reportedly delayed Cybertruck deliveries. The rumor is that it needed to address some quality concerns. But the reasons assumed vary and the company hasn’t said anything about the issue, and likely won’t since it disbanded its PR department years ago. However, this may not be the victory for Blue Oval that it appears.
Despite stalling deliveries of the all-electric F-150 pickup, your author has noticed there still seemed to be a more-than-healthy number of trucks sitting around on nearby Ford lots. But it hasn’t just been the EV, gasoline and hybrid versions of the F-Series (including gasoline models) also saw a production slowdown and swelling inventories. Ford has attributed the matter to quality issues that needed to be addressed. But it has not specified what exactly was causing the problem.
The skeptics among you will undoubtedly assume this was cover for declining interest in full-size pickups. Of particular concern would be the Lightning, which has been the center of a minor scandal after Ford rolled back production targets and laid off a meaningful portion of the production team. However, the automaker has indeed been doubling efforts to address quality control issues that had upset its consumer base.
At the same time Tesla’s Cybertruck, which is still new enough to be in that honeymoon phase with its key demographic, is reportedly suspending deliveries to address some unknown problem. According to The Verge, numerous owners and reservation holders have claimed that reports of a sticky accelerator pedal being the cause. The alleged issue is that the throttle (not technically the correct term for something using an all-electric powertrain) pedal cover is getting hung up.
While the situation was said to be easily overcome by a press of the brake, an issue like that would still be something the manufacturer undoubtedly wants to address before more are shipped out to customers. However, none of this has been confirmed beyond there being a few people leveling complaints and theorizing that this is why the company pressed pause. We’ll keep tabs to see if it shakes out to be anything serious.
[Images: Tesla; Ford]
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A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.
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Battery powered 1/2 ton pick-ups are just a bad idea period.
I applaud Tesla for trying to reinvent what a pick-up truck is or could be. It would be a great truck IMO with a GM LS V8 under the hood.
The Lightening however, is a poor, lazy attempt at building an EV pick-up.
Everyone involved with the project at Ford should be embarrassed/ashamed for bringing this thing to market.
Jeff - Agree with what you said. I think currently an EV pick-up could work in a commercial/fleet application. As someone on this site stated, w/current tech. battery vehicles just do not scale well.
EBFlex - No one wanted to hate the Cyber Truck more than me but I can't ignore all the new technology and innovative thinking that went into it. There is a lot I like about it. GM, Ford & Ram should incorporate some it's design cues into their ICE trucks.