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Ford Motor Co. idled its Louisville Assembly Plant this week over a software issue that’s affecting the recently freshened Escape crossover, according to the plant’s building chairman.
It’s the second Ford plant down this week due to quality problems; the automaker has also halted production and shipments of the F-150 Lightning, built in Dearborn, Mich., over a potential battery issue.
Workers in Louisville were told late last week the plant would be idled Feb. 13-19, according to a memo obtained by Automotive News.
In a separate message, the plant’s building chairman, Brandon Reisinger, said it was a software issue with the vehicle’s cluster.
“We’re on a day-by-day basis right now and I know that’s frustrating,” Reisinger told employees. “The issue we’ve got, the cluster, is a software issue. It’s not a hardware issue. If it were to get out, it would not be something that would endanger anybody … but it would have the vehicles coming back to the dealership.”
The automaker declined to disclose further information about the problem.
“We are committed to ensuring our vehicles are built with the quality our customers deserve and will take the appropriate actions to deliver this commitment,” Ford spokeswoman Kelli Felker said in an emailed statement.
Ford last year freshened the Escape and Lincoln Corsair crossovers for the 2023 model year with new exterior styling and technology. The plant is currently in the pre-production phase of the updated Escape launch.
Reisinger noted the plant intended to make up the lost units of production when work resumes, which is expected to be Monday.
The plant downtime was reported this week by WDRB News in Louisville.