Ford Motor Co. confirmed Wednesday that buyers of some 4,500 Mustang Mach-Es —the Blue Oval’s highly touted new electric vehicle — will face delivery delays.
That’s a higher number than the hundreds of impacted vehicles the automaker had previously said would be delivered late. Meanwhile, Ford said Wednesday that it will compensate some buyers of the all-new, battery-electric SUV due to the delays.
In a statement, Ford spokeswoman Emma Berg said the company will provide $1,000 toward the purchase of a Mach-E for approximately 150 customers “who have experienced more than one delay due to quality checks.” The company initially said the offer applied to 250 customers, but revised its statement after this story was published.
The automaker also said it would provide an additional 250 kilowatt hours of free charging via its FordPass Charging Network in response to the delay. That’s double the amount of free charging owners typically would receive. That offer applies to the 4,500 customers who have experienced delays, including about 1,500 who have already received their Mach-E, Ford said.
The automaker has not specified what issue is causing the delivery delays, except to say that additional quality checks are being performed.
In an email posted in an online forum for Mach-E owners, Andrew Frick, Ford’s vice president of sales for the U.S. and Canada, noted that the automaker has had “challenges … in meeting demand and delivery timing for the Mustang Mach-E.”
“We continue to build and ship vehicles every day, but we’re doing so with a meticulous attention to detail and dedication to quality. Your vehicle timing was impacted by more than one of these quality checks,” he wrote.
The news comes as the automaker on Wednesday reported its sales numbers for the month of February — the first full month reflecting sales of the Mach-E, which launched at the end of last year. The automaker sold 3,739 Mach-Es last month, according to the report.
The Mach-E has garnered positive attention from owners, critics and Wall Street analysts alike, earning Ford comparisons to EV heavyweight Tesla Inc. In January, the Mach-E took home the title of Utility of the Year from the the North American Car, Truck and Utility Vehicle of the Year awards.
News of the extended delays also comes amid other recent challenges for the Blue Oval, including an ongoing shortage of microchips that are essential components in vehicles, a winter storm that hampered production in February, and some quality issues with the redesigned 2021 F-150 and new Bronco Sport SUV that have required recalls.
jgrzelewski@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @JGrzelewski