These changes follow the F-150 delay last week.
Automakers had to temporarily stop production due to the coronavirus pandemic, which has caused a major disruption in the industry. The current cars aren’t all that the pandemic has impacted. Automakers have been forced to close factories in order to retool for new products. Bloomberg reports that COVID-related delays are now occurring for both the 2021 Mach-E as well as the 2021 Bronco, following last week’s Ford report.
According to the report, Hau Thai Tang, Ford’s head of product design, said that Ford would not delay the launches beyond the impact of Covid-19. He also stated that the main motivation was to save the company money during the crisis.
Thai-Tang stated that “given our inability in the assembly plants during shelter-in-place restrictions it will have an effect on program timing, in terms the launches.” “But we expect that the shutdown will cause launch delays proportional to the length of the shutdown.”
The impact of COVID-19 on the Bronco has been well documented. Ford delayed the unveiling of the Bronco’s debut originally scheduled for April. However, the pandemic was well in its midst. Motor1.com confirmed that Bronco would still be available at dealers in 2021. However, it did not provide any further information about production or when the SUV would be available to customers.
The all-electric Mustang Mach-E was last updated by Motor1.com‘s sister website, InsideEVs. stated that the on-sale date for the Mustang Mach-E would be sometime in November 2020. However, it is worth noting that this information came from the Norwegian market. Emma Bergg, spokesperson for Ford, stated that the company expects to deliver the Mustang Mach-E to American customers by late in 2019.
Ford plans to resume work at its North American plants on May 18th, although Bloomberg reports that it still faces a staggering $5 billion quarterly loss due to the coronavirus’ effect on new vehicle sales.