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- Ford is doubling down on its F-150 pickup trucks and planning to increase production by 50,000 units in 2026.
- It’s adding 1,000 new jobs and moving over some EV workers to achieve this target.
- This comes after one of its major aluminum-producing plants saw a massive fire in September.
Ford is ramping up production of its top-selling pickup truck, the F-150 series, and moving staff over from its EV unit to keep manufacturing rolling.
The auto company said in a press release on Thursday that it will increase the production of its best-selling trucks, the F-150 and F-Series Super Duty series, by more than 50,000 units in 2026.
“We are adding up to 1,000 new jobs to increase F-Series production to recover lost volume and fulfill strong customer demand,” Ford’s CEO, James Farley, said in a Thursday earnings call.
The increased output also aims to recover production losses from a fire at a plant belonging to the Atlanta-based Novelis, one of Ford’s major aluminum suppliers.
The fire broke out in Novelis’ Oswego plant in September. Ford’s finance chief said in the earnings call that the fire could cost Ford up to $2 billion in adjusted profits for the fourth quarter of 2025.
The increased focus on the gas and hybrid F-150 pickup trucks means that Ford will halt the production of its electric pickup truck, the F-150 Lightning.
“F-150 Lightning assembly at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center will remain paused as Ford prioritizes gas and hybrid F-Series trucks, which are more profitable for Ford and use less aluminum,” the press release said.
It added that all hourly employees from Ford’s Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, Michigan, would be moved over to the Dearborn Truck Plant to work on boosting output for the F-150 trucks.
The company reported third-quarter revenue of $50.5 billion, a 9% increase from the same period a year ago. Its stock price has risen about 11.6% in the past year.
This is not the first time Ford’s EV unit has taken hits as the company looks to slash costs. At the end of 2024, Ford paused F-150 Lightning production for seven weeks to cut costs.
Representatives for Ford did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
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