Ford sells cars with missing chips due to chip shortages – Image and sound – News

Ford will supply copies of the Explorer SUV without the chips needed to operate the air conditioning and heating from the rear seats. That functionality and the necessary chips will be installed later. Customers get a discount on such cars.

By supplying the Explorer with missing functionality, the car gets to customers faster, says a Ford spokesperson against The Verge† The company emphasizes that this is a temporary measure. The missing chips are sent to the dealers ‘within a year’, who then install them at customers, writes Automotive News.

The spokesperson also says that customers who buy a car with the missing chips will receive a discount. As far as we know, these are cars for the American market. According to the Dutch Ford website, the Explorer is available with ‘automatic air conditioning with 3 zones and controls for rear passengers’.

According to Automotive News, the parking lots of car factories such as Ford are becoming overcrowded due to chip shortages. In February, the site noted hundreds of parked Ford Broncos whose delivery has been postponed. Ford already had the plan before to deliver cars with missing chips to dealers in order to free up space. New is that Ford will now sell cars with missing functionality.

It is not the first time that the functionality of cars has been limited by chip shortages. Last year General Motors dropped wireless charging in different models. Tesla customers received Model 3 and Model Y versions with missing USB ports.