With no end in sight to the global semiconductor shortage, Ford will temporarily offer some Explorer SUVs without the electronics necessary to access the car’s heating and air conditioning controls from the rear passenger seats. Following a report from Automotive News, a Ford spokesperson shared confirmation of the plan with The Verge on Sunday, telling the outlet the move is an effort on the automaker’s part to get those cars to customers faster.
They added Ford would offer those SUVs at a discount and noted they will still come with functioning front-seat climate controls. The automaker reportedly plans to ship the missing chips to dealers within a year, at which point owners of those models will need to bring their cars in for installation.
Ford won’t be the first automaker to ship a car without parts in response to the chip shortage. Last year, some Tesla Model 3 and Model Y buyers got cars with missing USB-C ports. BMW, meanwhile, removed touchscreen controls on some of its vehicles, including X5 and Z4 models, to cope with the shortages.
