Tag: lightning
Ford will restart F-150 Lightning production on March 13th
Ford says it’s aiming to restart production of the F-150 Lightning on March 13th, several weeks after it put the EV on hold. It paused production and sent a stop-shipment order to dealers after a battery issue caused one of the trucks to catch fire in a holding lot on February 4th. It’s unclear what exactly led to the fire or how Ford has resolved the problem, though the company has said there’s no indication a charging fault was to blame.
The automaker told CNBC that setting a March 13th target gives supplier SK On more time to ramp up battery production at its Georgia factory and deliver the packs to the F-150 Lightning plant in Michigan. “In the weeks ahead, we will continue to apply our learnings and work with SK On’s team to ensure we continue delivering high-quality battery packs – down to the battery cells,” Ford said. “As REVC [Rouge Electric Vehicle Center] ramps up production, we will continue holding already-produced vehicles while we work through engineering and parts updates.”
Since it initially started F-150 Lightning production last April, Ford has sold fewer than 20,000 of the EVs. Still, the F-150 Lightning is very much in demand. Ford initially capped reservations at 200,000 in 2021 before reopening them last August. The early popularity of the truck is hardly a surprise, though — the F-Series has been America’s best-selling vehicle for 41 years.
Ford had hoped to scale up F-150 Lightning production to 150,000 trucks per annum this year. Last year, the company said that new battery tech would help it hit a global production rate of 600,000 EVs per year by the end of 2023. However, it’s unclear how much the downtime has affected those plans.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ford-will-restart-f-150-lightning-production-on-march-13th-200550043.html?src=rss
Ford F-150 Lightning fire wasn’t related to a design flaw, says battery supplier
The Ford F-150 Lightning fire that broke out at a Michigan factory in early February wasn’t caused by a battery defect, according to a report from Bloomberg. In a statement to the outlet, Ford’s South Korean battery supplier SK On calls the incident a “rare” occurrence and says it’s working on a fix.
Ford abruptly halted production of its flagship electric pickup on February 4th after one of the trucks caught fire in a holding lot affiliated with its Dearborn, Michigan, factory and spread to two other vehicles. Both Ford and SK have been investigating the issue for weeks and still haven’t resumed F-150 Lightning production. SK has once again started to build batteries in its Georgia factory, however.
“We believe this was a rare…
Ford Lightning production to remain halted for another week
Ford has extended a production shutdown of its all-electric Ford Lightning pickup truck by another week. Ford initially paused production and shipments of the Ford Lightning on February due to a potential battery issue and a day after a battery fire. Ford and its battery cell manufacturing partner SK have identified the problem, the automaker […]
Ford Lightning production to remain halted for another week by Kirsten Korosec originally published on TechCrunch
Ford pauses production and shipments of F-150 Lightning over potential battery issue
RiotPWR Launches New Dual Lightning and USB-C Gaming Controller
The new RiotPWR controller is equipped with Lightning and USB-C cables so that it can be played with Lightning-based iPhones and USB-C based iPads. It will also come in handy if Apple transitions to USB-C for the 2023 iPhone lineup, as is rumored.
“While competitors’ controllers come in Lightning and USB-C variations, the design of those controllers limits users to that one connection ability. This means that iOS gamers would need to buy a brand-new controller to play on their future Apple devices such as iPads,” said Fraser Townley, CEO of RiotPWR. “RiotPWR has always made future-proofing a priority when designing our controllers with our unique swappable and upgradable connection design.”
Modeled after console controllers, the RiotPWR controller offers two joysticks, Xbox-like button options, and an eight-way D-pad. Passthrough charging is available to keep your device battery full, and a phone mount accommodates any phone case.
There’s a built-in share button for streaming and recording gameplay or social media, along with audio DAC and headphone sockets.
The RiotPWR Cloud Gaming Controller can be purchased from the Apple website for $70.
This article, “RiotPWR Launches New Dual Lightning and USB-C Gaming Controller” first appeared on MacRumors.com
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Ford Halts Production, Shipments of F-150 Lightning Over Possible Battery Issue
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Hacked iPhone 12 Mini Has Ports For USB-C and Lightning
We’re all waiting for Apple to bring USB-C to the iPhone. But wouldn’t it be neat to be able to put all those old lightning cables to use even after the company switches to USB-C?
Ford Teases The Future of F-150 Lightning EVs
Ford’s all-electric F-150 Lightning is a pretty impressive truck straight from the dealership. Thanks to a big battery and dual electric motors, it goes from 0-60 in around four seconds and reaches speeds of 112 mph. However, the CEO is teasing a new “Performance EV” model on Twitter.
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Apple Reportedly Planning to Limit iPhone 15’s USB-C Port in the Same Way as Lightning
The rumor declares that Apple has developed its own variant of USB-C for this year’s iPhone 15 lineup and comes from a user who claims to be an integrated circuit expert with 25 years of experience working on Intel’s Pentium processors.
Integrated circuit (IC) interfaces are semiconductor chips used to manage the sharing of information between devices. Since their introduction in 2012, first-party and MFi-certified Lightning ports and connectors contain a small IC that confirms the authenticity of the parts involved in the connection. Non-MFi-certified third-party charging cables, for example, do not feature this chip, often leading to “This accessory is not supported” warnings on connected Apple devices.
The authenticator chip allows Apple to encourage customers to buy genuine iPhone peripherals and receive a commission on MFi-certified accessories, but it also allows Apple to tackle counterfeit and potentially dangerous accessories.
The latest rumor seems to suggest that Apple has developed a similar custom IC for the USB-C ports on the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro, and presumably its charging cables. As well as the iPhone 15 lineup, the new IC is apparently destined for new MFi-certified peripherals.
It is worth noting that the USB-C interface currently used by Apple in the 10th-generation iPad, iPad mini, iPad Air, and iPad Pro, do not contain an IC chip for authentication, meaning that this would be a first for ports of this kind offered by the company.
It is unclear if this addition could have any major implications for the functionality of the new devices, but it is possible that Apple could limit features like fast charging and high-speed data transfer to Apple and MFi-certified cables.
According to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the USB-C port on the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus will remain limited to USB 2.0 speeds – the same as Lightning. Only the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max models will apparently get faster charging speeds. As a result, the only major difference between Lightning and USB-C on the standard iPhone 15 models could simply be the physical shape of the connector.
The report is particularly believable since this would effectively mirror the split between the entry-level iPad and the iPad Pro. While both iPad models feature a USB-C port, the 10th-generation iPad is limited to USB 2.0 speeds of up to 480 Mbps, while the iPad Pro offers fully fledged Thunderbolt speeds up to 40 Gbps.
This article, “Apple Reportedly Planning to Limit iPhone 15’s USB-C Port in the Same Way as Lightning” first appeared on MacRumors.com
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