Well this is an interesting development. Quite a few people (including myself) received an e-mail similar to this overnight:
Thought I was getting the car next week then this…oh well the waiting continues.
Mach-E non-progress
Mach-E Progress
Well today the Mach-E won the NACTOY Utility of the Year award which is kind of cool–don’t think I’ve ever owned a car that won an award.
As far as the Mach-E I ordered: From what I can tell with Ford’s online status updates its either still sitting in the lot at the plant or is on a train headed North. Ford does peg its ETA between January 21st and the 28th–a little over a week away. We’ll see…
What’s happening???
Dying to know aren’t you? Oh wait that is probably a bad way to put it given the pandemic that is going on right now…Sorry.
So do I have any Mach-E news? Well sort of: My car was scheduled to be built on 12/7 but there has been no indications from Ford that it has happened (Some online status messages would change indicating that its being built and once complete the Ford Pass will add a “Activate Vehicle” button when it sees the car come online). In addition to that Ford is having shipping issues due to the pandemic: They already have 3500+ Mach-E’s built sitting around the plant waiting to be shipped to customers (worldwide!). Its been difficult for them logistically getting the cars shipped.
On top of all that I was able to pull my window sticker but it has big red letters on it “EPA ratings unavailable, not for sale” (although just before posting this I see that someone else who ordered the same model–a California Route 1–has their window sticker with actual EPA ratings: range of 305 miles).
Thus at this point I’m not expecting to see the vehicle prior to February 2021 at the earliest.
Flashed; Flashed I tell you
Well its done: The Bolt has been updated to the new charging software to prevent it from catching fire (not that I expected it to: I’ve had it for almost 30 months now).
Nothing really exciting to report on this: I took it to the dealer, they worked on it and returned it. I did see more Bolts in a single place than I have ever seen before ! LOL (2 for sale sitting on the lot, a manufacturer plated one drove through the lot and I was one of 3 getting the recall done for a grand total of 6–this doesn’t count seeing car hauler trucks going down the freeway filled with Bolts).
Since its now sitting at 1/2 a “tank” I think I’ll charge it tonight to see what kind of range I get tomorrow.
Bolt recall
If you haven’t heard: GM is recalling a bunch of Bolts because they just might catch on fire! Locally its in all the papers, such as this article.
GM is still investigating, but in the interim they are reprogramming Bolts to only charge to 90%.
Well I just got a call from my GM dealer to bring my Bolt in for the reprogramming–apparently it should only take an hour (I doubt the actual reprogramming will take that long).
So tomorrow I mask up and take the Bolt in…
Tick tock tick tock
The waiting continues–not talking about an election here.
Found out last week that not only will my Mach-E be built the week of 12/7, in fact it will start assembly on 12/7. This means: 30 days to go until it comes into existence……
Of course once it leaves the plant in Mexico I have no idea how long it will take to get here. First things first, however, it has to be built.
Well this is an interesting development
Just got an e-mail from Ford:
Looks like early December for a build date (sounds like there will be a lot built at that time given the users reporting dates in the Mach-E forums).
Where are we in mid-October?
So here we are almost the middle of October 2020 (yeah really?) Where are we?
Well I’ve done nothing all year..right? Hunkered down day by day, what day is it anyway?
Well fortunately some of the world keeps moving…
Mach-E development is continuing and Ford is on track to deliver some cars by the end of this year. Preproduction and production builds are going on now (I hear that the dealer units and some production units have been built). Sounds like people with orders may start to get VIN’s assigned starting next week. No vehicles will leave the plant until OK to buy which is currently planned for sometime prior to Thanksgiving.
So there is a possibility I may see a Mach-E around Christmas maybe. Wouldn’t that make for a great Christmas present to myself.
Apparently its WorldEVDay who knew?
Yeah you’d think I’d know about such things; I guess I dropped the ball here LOL.
Happy World EV Day!
You can find out some of the happenings via the twitter account:
and via the hashtag #WorldEVDay as well.
Whats going on with the Mach-E?
We’re now into September. The Mach-E was introduced 10 months ago (when I placed my reservation) what is going on?
Well, if you have a lot of time, you can read up on progress here (it is a rather lengthy thread). Some highlights:
- Ford only planned to sell about 50k due to limitations on obtaining batteries
- The Mach-E has been a lot more popular than that (80k orders)
- Right now there are “bigwigs” in the plant watching over the entire process making sure everything is perfect
- No vehicles will be shipped out until Ok to buy (sometime in November)
- They should start assigning VINs within the next few months (well of course before OKTB LOL)
- Ford did a rather strange marketing stunt (the “Mach-E drop”) on various media allowing people to pick up a First Edition (and thereby jumping in front of the line of people waiting since November..huh?)
- It looks like the California Route 1 trim level (the one I ordered) may have the longest range of all the versions of the car (smaller wheels, extended range battery, fewer options, etc.)
The above implies that A) the Mach-E is a very popular vehicle, B) if you want one and didn’t reserve one good luck getting one before 2022 and C) very few will likely be delivered by the end of this year (was hoping mine would show up this year but probably not).
I’m also still waffling back and forth on if I actually want the car (well yes, but is it the right car for us/me?). Here is a list of reasons why I wouldn’t get the car:
- It will be the most expensive vehicle (aside from the RV) that we’ve ever purchased and thus any change to our financial position between now and the car arriving will dramatically affect if we can get it or not
- I can’t take it with me LOL–I think I did an earlier post on this: I’m going on the assumption that it cannot be towed (flat or on a dolly) which means bringing it with us when we use the RV is a drive two vehicle proposition. For any trip longer than about 4 hours this isn’t tenable. There are less expensive EV’s that can be towed (e.g. our current Bolt).
That 2nd point is pretty big: Our son is off to college now and we’re planning (post pandemic of course) to do a bit more travelling with the RV than we have to date hence I’d want to bring the sparkly new car with us if we can…. (Can’t tow it on a trailer as that would be too heavy for our RV to pull–as it is the Mach-E by itself may be too heavy for our RV as well! LOL).
At this point we’re still in the waiting game with no real “action” (e.g. seeing a demo car to drive, or the dealer contacting me with an update) expected until at least Thanksgiving.
And the pandemic rolls on.. LOL
