Ford’s F-150 was hit by the global semiconductor shortage, and now its flagship Mustang Mach-E electric vehicle is seeing a serious delay too — by a minimum of six weeks for prospective owners who were scheduled to get their vehicle between July 5th and October 1st. That’s according to emails Ford reportedly to buyers today (via Electrek), though Ford tells us the email was a draft that has not yet been sent to affected customers.
Here’s Ford’s statement:
The global semiconductor shortage continues to affect global automakers and other industries in all parts of the world . We are working closely with all of our key suppliers to address production constraints tied to this global semiconductor shortage so we can continue to build Mach-E vehicles, and get them to our customers as quickly as we can.
It’s not the first delay for the Mustang Mach-E, after Ford held back some 4,500 cars in March for unspecified quality checks, and Ford’s handling this delay in much the same way, giving owners an additional 250kWh of free charging at stations in the company’s FordPass Charging Network. That’s on top of the 250kWh they were already going to receive for purchasing the vehicle. Since the Mach-E has a usable battery capacity of between 68kWh and 88kWh, we’re talking about roughly three free fill-ups.
Some of the very first Mach-E vehicles also reportedly saw their deliveries pushed back by a month in January, and UK deliveries were paused due to a safety risk in June.
You can read our previews of the Mach-E at the links below.
The global chip shortage seems to be getting worse before it gets better, with semiconductor giant TSMC warning it will continue into next year. All sorts of gadgets are affected, including graphics cards and game consoles, but automakers have been hit particularly hard. Some car companies have gotten creative, dropping features like wireless charging, HD radio and start-stop, or rewriting their own software for chips that are easier to obtain than the originals.
Update August 11th, 7:16PM ET: Added Ford statement.