Ford closed orders for the 2022 Mustang Mach-E electric vehicle (EV) this week, citing its inability to meet strong demand in the face of the ongoing supply chain crunch.
For the last month, the company had restricted buyers from selecting many of the car's trims, allowing ordering only on the Select and GT variants. In March, the company stopped taking orders on the Premium and Route 1 trims.
Ford spokesperson Emma Bergg confirmed the move to the Detroit Free Press, saying that there was "unprecedented demand."
"We will continue to sell the limited number of units remaining from dealer stock," she added. "We will communicate MY23 (model year 2023) ordering details as soon as available."
Production of the 2023 version is expected to start later this year at the company's Mexico assembly plant. Plans to include another EV in that production line were scrapped.
Earlier this year, Ford announced that it would spend billions of dollars to build battery manufacturing facilities in Kentucky and Tennessee, which are expected to open in 2025.
In Ford's fourth-quarter earnings call in February, CEO Jim Farley said that the company would be able to increase its planned capacity for EVs to 600,000 units per year in 2023. One-third of that production is expected to be for the Mustang Mach-E.
He also said that the company has been working on procuring the batteries needed for the ramp up.
"Really, the primary lift for us is battery availability," he said. "So we've actually been securing extra batteries for quite some time now. We have some options for Mach-E."
Last year, the company sold 27,140 Mach-Es.
The base version of the 2022 Ford Mustang Mach-E started at $43,995, with the top GT trim beginning at just above $61,000.
Powertrain options include a standard-range 70-kilowatt-hour (kWh) battery that combines with an electric motor to deliver 266 horsepower and 317 pound-feet of torque. An all-wheel drive option bumps that up to a 91-kWh battery and two electric motors, making for 317 horsepower and 428 pound-feet of torque.
No pricing details have been released for the 2023 model year.
In the increasingly competitive EV SUV market, the Mach-E goes toe-to-toe with the 2022 Tesla Model Y, which starts at $62,990. The 2022 Hyundai Ioniq 5 and the 2022 Kia EV6 are newer to the segment and slightly smaller, starting at $43,650 and $40,900, respectively.
Along with the Mustang Mach-E, Ford is currently selling the 2022 Ford E-Transit, the all-electric version of its commercial van, for a starting MSRP of $43,295. The 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning EV pickup, which is expected to hit dealerships later this year, starts at $52,974. A commercial version is also available at $39,974.
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