Ford Maverick Orders Are Looking Good....

[Jim Oaks]

According to Ford CEO Jim Farley on Wednesday, the Ford Maverick hybrid pickup which starts at $20,000, already has around 80,000 orders.

 

[PoBoi850]

But are there going to be Chip shortages for this truck. I hope not. Ford Doesn't need another bad rollout of a highly anticipated truck. The Explorer rollout was horrible, the Bronco rollout ain't going too good either, and I drove by a huge lot full of F-150's in ATL a few weeks back, just chillin', waiting for chips.

 

[RonD]

Yes, there are chip shortages
These "chips" are used in the electronic devices used in all vehicles, so its not just a Ford issue, its world wide

"Chip" makers do one run of a certain type of chip, they make say 10 million of them, then they have to shutdown for a few days(weeks) to set up to make a slightly different chip, and so it goes

Then the chips are sent/sold to a company that makes the circuit boards, a circuit board can not be "partially" assembled, its an all or nothing process, so they have to have every resistor, capacitor, diode and "chip" before that can start assembling

Then those assembled circuit boards are sent/sold to another company that packages them in a housing, usually along with other circuit boards(like power supply), and, of course, they can not start assembling until they have ALL the parts needed

At the start of Covid most car makers(world wide) cancelled all electronic orders expecting very low sales with the lockdowns and job cutbacks
That didn't happen, car sales stayed the same or went up
But the "chips" were not being made so..........................now we have "chip shortage", replacement pipeline dried up

 

[snoranger]

Yes, there are chip shortages
These "chips" are used in the electronic devices used in all vehicles, so its not just a Ford issue, its world wide

"Chip" makers do one run of a certain type of chip, they make say 10 million of them, then they have to shutdown for a few days(weeks) to set up to make a slightly different chip, and so it goes

Then the chips are sent/sold to a company that makes the circuit boards, a circuit board can not be "partially" assembled, its an all or nothing process, so they have to have every resistor, capacitor, diode and "chip" before that can start assembling

Then those assembled circuit boards are sent/sold to another company that packages them in a housing, usually along with other circuit boards(like power supply), and, of course, they can not start assembling until they have ALL the parts needed

At the start of Covid most car makers(world wide) cancelled all electronic orders expecting very low sales with the lockdowns and job cutbacks
That didn't happen, car sales stayed the same or went up
But the "chips" were not being made so..........................now we have "chip shortage", replacement pipeline dried up

This shows how great just in time production works... with no parts stock on hand, if there’s an issue with any supplier all production stops.

 

[PoBoi850]

So why not stop production of vehicles until they catch up? Not a real question, but seriously, How do they ever plan to catch up if car companies are churning out vehicles faster than the chip makers can make chips?

 

[RonD]

Most of the electronics on vehicles are plug-in modules and usually easy to access, but not always
So they can do the assemblies then add the modules when they have them

The "chip" makers were not making the type of "chips" used in PCMs(engine computers), there are several different types of "chips" inside one of these, because orders were cancelled

There are loads of other electronics, like TVs and stereos that use different "chips" so thats what was being made so the "chip" makers could stay in business
When your BIGGEST buyers(car makers) suddenly cancel ALL orders.........................you scramble, lol
You sign other Contracts to make these other specific "chips" for other buyers, so you can't just backout on a Contract when your previous buyer(who dropped you like a hot potato) says "OK make me more of my chips"

 

[rubydist]

Correction to Ron's post - the chips were being made, but they go into anything electronic and all those folks working from home were upgrading their computers, monitors, game consoles, etc etc and they used way more chips there than usual, so when the auto manufacturers tried to ramp back up, there were not enough. Adding to that, one of the large chip manufacturing facilities in Asia had a large fire so that plant has been out of commission for months. The combination of all those factors brought is to where we are now.

fyi, the lead time for some of those chips is 26 weeks, and the lead time to make a new factory to make more chips faster is around 2 years.

 

[JAMMAN]

According to Ford CEO Jim Farley on Wednesday, the Ford Maverick hybrid pickup which starts at $20,000, already has around 80,000 orders.

I can imagine. The ranger was advertised forever, the bronco started advertising before the ranger, the ranger rollout was less than stellar IMO because they only offered one engine. ? the original rangers came with 2 distinctly different V6's (post 2.9) an incredible 4 cyl 2.3 and 2.5 were awesome, a diesel and an electric model. Us ranger mavens wanted more choices not just one engine. It was a great engine but we wanted choices. There was a lot of ranger interest at the roll out then it fizzled.

The bronco I didn't even know it had been released till there it was lol.

Again IMO the Maverick is being done right. Complete surprise. Advertised only a few months before its release. 2 distinct engines. If I could buy stock in Maverick right now I would invest 25% of everything I have because it is dripping with elements of complete success.

It is the only new car in 25 years I have had a real interest in. I will probably buy one.