Ford was forced to halt deliveries of some F-Series pickups after running out of blue oval badges, report says
Scott Olson/Getty Images
- Ford paused some deliveries because it ran out of blue badges, the company told The WSJ.
- Sources said the shortage affected Ford's popular F-Series pickups.
- This week, Ford said that it had up to 45,000 vehicles awaiting their final parts.
Ford had to delay deliveries of some vehicles including F-Series pickups after running out of its famous blue oval badges, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Sources told the newspaper that Ford had run out of badges and nameplates for certain models. A company spokesman told The Journal that it had halted some vehicle shipments as a result.
Ford had considered 3D-printing the grille badges but decided that they wouldn't meet its quality standards, insiders told the paper.
A source said Ford's F-series pickup trucks, one of America's most popular vehicle range, had been affected by the shortage.
On Monday, Ford announced that it expected 40,000 to 45,000 vehicles to be affected by a lack of certain parts, with "high-demand, high-margin models of popular trucks and SUVs" disproportionately affected.
The Journal quoted city and state officials who said Tribar Technologies, a Michigan-based company that has made badges for Ford, was forced to halt production in August after disclosing that it had discharged industrial chemicals into a local sewer system.
The company said on its website that it had made badges for Ford's F-150 pickups that have reportedly been affected by the shortage. Ford declined to comment to The Journal on whether Tribar's issues had contributed to the shortage.
The issue adds to ongoing supply-chain problems in the automotive industry, with some semiconductors still in short supply, forcing manufacturers to put them in vehicles after they come off the production line.
General Motors now has almost 100,000 vehicles awaiting missing components.
Some companies are even stockpiling glass, as Germany's Volkswagen cited a shortage of the commodity in Europe for its decision to increase its inventory of windshields and windows.
Ford didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment made outside normal working hours.