40,000 Ford F-150 Vehicles Could Be Lacking Their Blue Oval Badges: WSJ

• The Wall Avenue Journal studies that Ford expects to be sitting on 40,000 to 45,000 vans on the finish of the third quarter as a result of it does not have sufficient badges to placed on them.
• The issue won’t be associated to the supply-chain disruptions brought on by the pandemic. As an alternative, the trigger is perhaps a chemical spill in Michigan final month by Tribar, an organization that has equipped badges to Ford up to now and wanted to restrict operations quickly.
• Ford reportedly thought of utilizing 3D printing expertise to supply short-term substitute badges however did not assume the standard could be adequate.

When somebody in Springfield pranked Superintendent Chalmers by eradicating the hood emblem from his 1979 Honda Accord, he complained, “That is how folks know it is a Honda.” Good for fun on The Simpsons, however it’s unlikely that anyone will fail to acknowledge the bestselling automobile within the U.S. for many years if it does not say “Ford.” Nonetheless, the automaker is holding again tens of 1000’s of recent F-series pickup vans as a result of the automaker does not have sufficient badges.

Individuals acquainted with the state of affairs advised the Wall Avenue Journal that the scarcity applies to the well-known blue oval Ford badges in addition to those who establish the mannequin. A Ford spokesperson advised the Journal that some automobile shipments are nonetheless occurring as deliberate and that it’s retrofitting autos that do not have the right badges earlier than delivering them to sellers. Ford mentioned it expects to have between 40,000 and 45,000 pickups ready for badges on the finish of the third quarter.

Ford reportedly thought of 3D printing to make short-term badges however dismissed the thought as a result of it couldn’t assure the short-term replacements would look nearly as good. The corporate declined to touch upon the 3D printing proposal to the paper. We’ve requested Ford for extra particulars about these points.

Ford, and different automakers, had beforehand held again shipments of quite a few fashions due to an absence of silicon semiconductor chips, which have been tough for some automakers to acquire for his or her merchandise since 2020 due to the pandemic.

However the lack of badges won’t be straight tied to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Journal famous that one among Ford’s badge suppliers is Tribar Applied sciences. That identify probably rings a bell for readers in mid-Michigan, as a result of that is the place Tribar “launched a number of thousand gallons of a liquid containing 5 p.c hexavalent chromium into the sewer system” in August, in line with the Michigan Division of Atmosphere, Nice Lakes, and Power. Hexavalent chromium is a type of the metallic component chromium and has been proven to “trigger a variety of opposed well being results by way of ingestion, pores and skin contact, or inhalation,” the MDEGLE mentioned.

As a part of the chemical cleanup, Tribar was pressured to “restrict operations” in August, the Journal mentioned. This may need brought about a drop within the provide of recent badges. Each Ford and Tribar confirmed their badge-supplying relationship, however neither would speak to the paper concerning the present state of affairs.

This content material is imported from ballot. You could possibly discover the identical content material in one other format, otherwise you could possibly discover extra info, at their website online.