With automotive production still greatly impacted by the semiconductor chip shortage – along with various other supply chain issues – automakers like Ford are doing whatever they can to continue to build enough vehicles to meet consumer demand. For The Blue Oval, this has meant producing incomplete vehicles and storing them in various places until those missing parts are available, a practice that the automaker has engaged in for over two years now. Now, Ford Authority has spotted yet another bevy of vehicles sitting around waiting for parts – this time, a host of 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning pickups near the Flat Rock Assembly plant in Michigan.
Flat Rock currently produces the Ford Mustang, though it has built various other FoMoCo models since it originally opened back in 1972. The 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning, on the other hand, is produced at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center, which is located adjacent to the Dearborn Truck Plant, where the ICE-powered Ford F-150 is built. The Flat Rock plant also happens to be the site where a host of Mustangs – along with four Shelby GT500 models – have been stolen recently, so hopefully these EV pickups won’t suffer the same fate.
This is far from the only lot of Blue Oval models that are quickly piling up at various sites around the state of Michigan, however. As Ford Authority reported last month, a large number of Ford trucks and SUVs remain at the automaker’s plants due to supply shortages – around 40,000-45,000 units total, according to FoMoCo itself. Ford Authority spies captured a number of these so-called “vehicles on wheels” earlier this month, too.
While many of Ford’s production woes stem from the semiconductor chip shortage and various other important components, a number of Ford F-Series trucks are also waiting on something far simpler – Blue Oval badges, as Ford Authority reported in September. Ford gets its Blue Oval badges from a Michigan-based supplier dubbed Tribar Technologies, Inc., which is once again operating at full capacity following an accidental discharge of chemicals into the local sewer system recently.
We’ll have more on Ford’s supply chain issues soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for the latest Ford F-Series news, Ford F-150 news, F-150 Lightning news, and 24/7 Ford news coverage.
Comments
As a business owner it’s really been a eye opening to see that the dealerships have earned the ‘stealerships ‘ Nick name. We recently stop purchasing from any dealership and now buying from personal owners as we’ve found it cheaper and a better class of vehicles.
@Lanis – That’s painting with a pretty broad brush labeling all dealerships that way. True some have taken advantage of the current supply shortage with excessive mark up but there are plenty of dealers in my area that have chosen not to go over MSRP. And as a former Ford employee, most dealers will accept my employee pricing if I order a vehicle. I can’t figure out why some folks choose to put a negative label on reputable business owners because of a few bad examples.
When I walk into the Ford dealer down the street and they have a $20,000 markup on the base model Lightning pickup they have earned the name “stealership”. I believe in capitalism but I recall the silver anniversary Corvette that had a huge markup from the dealer and a year later was worth no more than any other Corvette.
What is truly sad is that they are not honest in how they represent the capabilities of the truck specifically in terms of towing and the lack of driving range when pulling a trailer.
Ford could put a stop to the over msrp pricing if they wanted to but they don’t ,but the American people can don’t buy at those dealerships we got one here in kingsport tn that adds price to sticker and nobody buys from them I’d drive 200 mile before I’d buy a car or truck from them and as for me I’m not even going to pay sticker for a vehicle they can knock of a couple grand or ill go someplace else and that’s final . But the American people are the most stupid people on the planet when it comes to buying cars it all about when they buy a car they got have it or die salesman know this and people fall for the creative financing that’s just for weak minded fools and 90 percent of people when it comes to buying cars are weak minded fools especially when buying extended warranty coverage. But the shear price alone is going to curb most people from buying new trucks any way and when Joe blow and his bunch of thugs get done with us Ford ,Gm And Chrysler will be lucky to sell 50k vehicles between them when its over .
Sage commentary from a man who seems to not know how to use a period.
Also, if nobody buys those vehicles from the Kingsport over MSRP dealer, how do they stay in business?
That said, most dealer salespersons know customer weaknesses and play them to the hilt.
You have it backward. There are a few nearly honest dealers…at least when they are dealing with Ford employees.
In my opinion, any dealer charging “destination” is a crook. Name another product you have to pay shipping for when you went into the store and are already looking at the item.
all vehicles have a destination fee. Amazon charges you for shipping, they just hide it in the price.
the only thing that will solve this backlog of unfinished produced vehicles is the demand destruction a recession will promise in 2023. Farley will probably get a bonus
There was a report from GS today where they don’t see recession as likely.
Explain three quarters of negative growth or have you drank the media / democrats kook aid
Not at all.
Fortune: “… [even] as most CEOs and economists are convinced the U.S. economy is barreling toward a recession, [GS] is sticking with the opposite view. It only sees a 35% chance of a recession and says we have a “unique” rebalancing of the labor market to thank for it.”
However, from GS CEO, via CNN (oh my, the house of communist media): “I think you have to expect that there’s more volatility on the horizon now. That doesn’t mean for sure that we have a really difficult economic scenario. But on the distribution of outcomes, there’s a good chance that we have a recession in the United States,” he added.“
Risk managers are talking about recession but there’s still significant contrarian thinking as to how deep and long, if at all, one will be. Even w/in GS there’s differing opinions.
None of my truck buddies will be buying these hot garbage EV trucks. Ford themselves said they only have a 70 mile towing range before you’re stranded. Those trucks will sit and rot on that lot. Especially with the Nationwide grassroots boycott against EVs.
Darren, did you see this news report from July 2022:
” Sales of battery-powered electric vehicles – pure EVs – jumped to 196,788, a record high and a 13% increase from Q1.”
Just keep buying that expensive gas and diesel, and watch the EV’s cruise by.
We will see how you like your electric coffin if the battery shorts out and burns you and family to a crisp before you can crap your panties. Plus just sit in the dark scared because all those elec vehicles are on full charge and you’re all alone. You and all you Greene’s are to blame, plus the whole West Coast letting the areas burn instead of managing the forest and clearing fire break’s, instead of smoking up the atmosphere it’s called Global Warming.
Far more gasoline vehicle fires, but don’t let the facts get in the way of your feelings.
I actually support EVs, I think it is unfortunate that the issue has become so politicized. But I’m waiting for the technology to evolve before taking the plunge. But to be fair, on a per mile basis, gasoline vehicles have far fewer vehicle fires, nor do they burst into flames after a heavy rain storm as the Teslas and electric golf carts recently did in SW Florida after Hurricane Ian.
Came to laugh at the bonkers, and, Barry, you didn’t disappoint.
Your going for gold by giving us a glimpse of your extreme ignorance (regarding forest fires) and your reveling in malicious anticipatory gloating is the chef’s kiss!
P.s. @Pete20602, by the time your Tesla is burning due to immersion, it’s a total loss even before the fire.
LoL poor Darren S seems to have his facts all ajumble … but it’s much like complaining about an F-150 not able to handle Super Duty style use cases.
The 70 mile range happens when you tow 10,000 pounds at over 70 mph.
When you don’t use it like this you will see the EPA rated range.
Use it like that and be mindful that you will have to charge more frequently.
Everybody needs to make informed decisions for their use case.
You must have been caught in a vortex and come from a parallel dimension. They can’t make these fast enough. They are selling like hotcakes.
Around here, only maybe 5-10% of trucks do any towing. And most of those are heavy duty rather than the entry vehicles like F-150s.
What we will see is a division just like that between gas and diesel drivers. The overwhelming majority of F150 drivers are homeowners and small contractors. Some of the heaviest use the majority of them will receive is in the Home Depot parking lot. This is who is going to buy the electric trucks. If I needed to haul 10k consistently I’d be buying an F250. We heard all the same arguments about “wimpy, incapable” trucks when the EcoBoost came out and again when Ford went to aluminum. Don’t worry. If you can’t sleep at night without knowing you can take on a Peterbuilt, don’t worry. Ford still makes a truck for that, but it isn’t the one that will be picking up little Timmy from school.
Don’t mention this fact to Darren and Barry:
“Oct 26 (Reuters) – Tesla Inc (TSLA. O) surpassed $1 trillion in market value on Monday, overshadowing the combined value of five of its biggest rivals, Toyota Motor Corp (7203. T), Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE), Daimler AG (DAIGn.DE), Ford Motor Co (F.N) and General Motors.”
Or that formerly BEV snoozing Toyota is now reported to have assembled a platform task force to try to catch up on BEV where Tesla, VW, Ford and the Chinese have stolen a march on them.
I wonder how much this is costing Ford having all that inventory sitting there doing nothing, and is that part of the reason why Ford raised prices on EVs so much?
Two separate topics.
Due to supply chain issues you build what you can build and roll off the line. Then hold it for retrofit when whatever held up shipment comes in.
EV’s went up because commodity prices for battery materials went up due to insufficient competitive downward price pressure.
Prices in general are going up because the supply base can no longer just eat prices from their upstream component and materials suppliers and are thus passing along to OEMs.
Or up 7.5k the same time the government’s EV tax credit hit.
Probably does not cost them much, mostly the transportation, and losses if stolen.
What they need is a mobile finishing factory. Then they can put the trucks in more convenient and safe locations. And when the parts finally come, you move the little factory to the lot and finish them.
Also, I would put concrete bin blocks all around that lot to make stealing the trucks much harder. Or take a cue from Arizona and put containers around the whole lot…or both. Both would be good, with the blocks on the outside. That should make it hard to get container mover access from outside. Heck, I would put containers across the gate too, at night, and the container mover inside would be disabled a night, with several major components missing, and those parts at a secret location.
Could even send them to the dealers unfinished. The dealers have shops and could complete the assembly when the parts come. And with them on the lots, they can probably sell them while they are waiting for the parts. Can’t take it home until it is finished, but people would still buy them.
Note the auto loaders in the background. This is a shipment railhead. It is a relatively secure lot. (Enter Flat Rock Assembly Plant into Apple Maps and then look to the north of the plant at the enormous storage lot. The pic is taken from Hall Road looking West across the lot.)
When Ford had launch quality issues on Explorer, they were shipped from Chicago AP to Flat Rock AP for remediation.
FRAP must have more space for holding and remediation than CAP or DTAP/REVC and/or possibly more personnel.
In the news today:
“Americans bought more than 200,000 electric cars in the third quarter — a first. Electric car sales grew faster than any other segment of the auto industry.
Americans bought 67% more electric cars in the third quarter of 2022 than in the same period in 2021, according to our third-quarter Electrified Light Vehicle Sales Report. Overall new car sales fell 0.1% in the same period.”