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Stuck in park: Rows of pickup trucks wait out chip shortage at Ford's Flat Rock Assembly Plant

Posted at 2:34 PM, May 06, 2021
and last updated 2021-05-06 14:34:01-04

(WXYZ & ASSOCIATED PRESS) — Chopper 7 video captured dozens of rows of Ford pickup trucks sitting in park outside of Ford’s Flat Rock Assembly Plant Wednesday.

This is just after photos from Kentucky went viral of seemingly F Series pickup trucks almost filling the 30-acre main parking lot of the currently unused Kentucky Speedway, a lot that can hold more than 5,000 cars on race day.

The company confirms that the pickups outside the Flat Rock Assembly Plant are among those that they said in March would be held at factories for “a number of weeks,” then shipped to dealers once computers are available and quality checks are done.

The move is a ripple from the global semiconductor shortage, which has also forced Honda and Toyota to announce production cuts at some North American factories. General Motors also has been forced to build pickups without some computers and install them later.

Automakers have said they don’t expect the chip shortage to get any better before the third quarter of the year.

Associated Press contributed to this report.