Things are going from bad to worse for the round 150 Australian owners of the huge Ford F-150 Lightning electric utes, with warnings that they should only trickle charge for the near future coming amid news that the parent company of the EV’s distributor has been placed into receivership.
A nationwide recall notice for Ford F-150 Lightning electric vehicles (EVs) converted to right-hand drive by local firm AusEV is set to make life even more difficult for the 150 or so drivers who have bought one of the electric utes, considering that AusEV’s parent company Bosscap last week was placed into receivership.
Over the space of eight days, things went from bad to worse for around 150 Australian owners of the Ford F-150 Lightning, an electric ute or “truck” that was once thought to herald a new dawn for EVs but has since been relegated to the scrap heap – in more ways than one.
Originally unveiled in May of 2021, and delivered for the first time a year later, the Ford F-150 Lightning was hailed as an electric ute that could do it all.
Boasting a range of 370 kilometres for the base level model and up to 515 kilometres for the top-of-the-line model, the Lighting was also capable of vehicle-to-grid (V2G) and vehicle-to-load (V2L), meaning the ute could theoretically charge everything from tools on the job to your caravan to your home.
Unfortunately for Australians there was always very little chance the F-150 Lightning would make its way Down Under anytime soon. It was only through the auspices of Queensland based AusEV, an unaffiliated company with no ties to Ford, that a few models were able to be converted and sold, though prices started at $225,000 when the first models were made available in early 2024.
A combination of slower-than-expected demand, the return of Donald Trump as president of the United States, and a change in leadership which came hand-in-hand with a lowering of EV ambitions saw Ford in October of last year halt production of the F-150 Lightning.
This was quickly followed by reports that the company was planning to ditch the car entirely, which were confirmed a month later as Ford reinvented the car as an extended range electric vehicle.
It was these changes made by Ford that have been blamed for downfall of AusEV parent company, the Australian vehicle import company’s Bosscap Group.
In a LinkedIn post last week, Bosscap reported that it had been placed into receivership on March 17 and that all operations had been suspended while the receivers undertake an assessment of the business.
According to Bosscap, “a sudden change in global production strategy from Ford materially impacted the availability of the underlying platform the business relied on. This decision which was outside” of its control.
In the same LinkedIn post, Bosscap revealed that it would therefore be “unable to undertake warranty repair works”, an issue that very quickly became of paramount importance after the Australian government’s Vehicle Recalls website issued a recall for 146 F-150 Lightning units.
According to the recall, the Lightning, fitted with a Combined Charging System (CCS2) charge port, “may experience increased electrical resistance during high-power Direct Current (DC) fast charging causing the internal charging pins to overheat”, requiring owners of the car to “avoid charging the vehicle using DC fast chargers” and to use AC charging instead.
Worryingly, the recall notice warned that, “If a person makes direct contact with the overheated charge port pins immediately after a charging session, there is a risk of burns or serious injury.”
Given that Bosscap and AusEV are now unable to attend to any warranty repairs, owners of the affected cars will be required to contact Performax International, the largest independent importer, converter, and retailer of American vehicles for sale in Australia, “to schedule an appointment to have their vehicle inspected and rectification carried out.”
“Performax did not design or modify these vehicles or supply them to the Australian market,” the recall states.
“In the interests of public safety Performax has offered their services to rectify vehicles affected by this recall. A cost may be incurred for these repairs.”
Contact information for Performax International can be found via the recall notice here.
Joshua S. Hill is a Melbourne-based journalist who has been writing about climate change, clean technology, and electric vehicles for over 15 years. He has been reporting on electric vehicles and clean technologies for Renew Economy and The Driven since 2012. His preferred mode of transport is his feet.
