Ford has finally shed some light on the scale of the delay it is experiencing in rolling out its first mass-market electric car, the Mustang M-K-E SUV. The first full month of delivery – the company announced Wednesday that it shipped 3,739 Mustang Mach-AS in February – it said Edge Some 50,000 customers will have to wait longer than expected to get an electric SUV, a statement said.
Auto Tomaker did not specifically say what caused the delay, only that it was holding back the electric Mustangs “as part of our commitment to deliver quality vehicles to customers.” Ford had earlier said in January that it was delaying the delivery of “several hundred” of them for quality testing.
To help with the delay, Ford is offering affected customers an additional 250 kilowatts of free charging at stations within the company’s Fordpass charging network. (Buyers of the Mustang Mach-e already received 250 kWh for free as a promotion.) Ford also says it will “cover the first month’s payment” – $ 1,000 – for about 250 customers to experience the extended delay they received. The news of this facility first surfaced in the Mach-e forum on Tuesday.
Ford is not alone in having trouble starting EV. Earlier this week, Edge First reported that Volvo has a number of XC40 recharge SUVs at US ports before electric vehicles reach customers. Volkswagen also got into trouble last year during the launch of its ID3 Mass-Market EV due to a software issue.
Ford also had trouble rolling out a new version of Explorer in 2019, which shook the company’s executive rank, replacing Jim Herkett as Jim Ferley’s predecessor as CEO.
