C max energi on HOLD?

[Douwe]

My dealer just called me with good and not so good news. He had a VIN # for my order but then told me that Ford has put a "hold" on the Energi and said my delivery is undetermined as a result. The dealer told me that several Energis are "on the ramp" at the CA distribution center but Ford is not allowing them to be shipped to the dealers. I asked if it was CA only or nationwide and the dealer did not know. Does anyone have any information on the "HOLD"?

Edited December 10, 2012 by Douwe

[ice-capades]

My dealer just called me with good and not so good news. He had a VIN # for my order but then told me that Ford has put a "hold" on the Energi and said my delivery is undetermined as a result. The dealer told me that several Energis are "on the ramp" at the CA distribution center but Ford is not allowing them to be shipped to the dealers. I asked if it was CA only or nationwide and the dealer did not know. Does anyone have any information on the "HOLD"?

 

Did your dealer give you the VIN # for your C-MAX Hybrid Energi or just tell you that they had the VIN # and that Ford had put a "hold" on the Energi? Until Dealers receive their "Green" certification from Ford and install at least 2 charging stations at the dealership (one for customer charging by the Showroom and another for Service Department access) they can't even order either C-MAX Hybrid Energi or Fusion Hybrid Energi models.

[Douwe]

Ice-capades,

 

The Ford dealer did give me a VIN# 1FADP5CU2DL521546. On the C max energi forum there is one more customer, in my area, that has ordered from a different dealer but has been given the same information about her/his order being on hold. Both dealers already have the certification and have sold and are selling C max energis and hybrids. The one thing that both, on hold, cars have in common is that they are ordered with the 303A equipment package.

 

Recent update from the other buyer who was told there is a hold; their dealer is telling them it is a ship hold and that it may be something such as a shortage of rail cars.

Edited December 14, 2012 by Douwe

[ice-capades]

The rail car shortage is a situation that's existed for a few years now. In particular, new Mustangs sit at the plant for several weeks before they're finally loaded on rail cars. I'll look forward into various Ford online sources via FMCdealer.com to see if I can find out anything specific about the C-MAX Hybrid Energi situation and report back here if I can find anything out that will help.

[Douwe]

ice-capades - That would be great! Another forum contributor did some digging and found out that many of the early Energis, that were CA bound, were diverted to other states (mostly TX). He actually paid for a car (dealer ordered not customer ordered) that was enroute to CA only to find out that during transit the window sticker was changed and the car ended up in TX. His speculation on that was that some of the early cars would not meet some of the california requirements. I suppose there could be other reasons for the diversion including a shortage of rail cars destined for CA. Energis are now being delivered/sold in CA so I doubt anything technical is holding them up and I would think it is logistics. BTW, so far, I got my VIN# ahead of the anticipated schedule (Ford site says 4 weeks after order and I got mine less than 3 weeks after order). I am happy that the dealer is keeping me informed and really has made no promises or has set no unrealistic expectations.

 

Update 12/20/2012: A CA customer, on the "Energi" forum, claims his dealer told him his car is on hold waiting for a software upgrade so it will meet CA emissions standards. This seems odd to me since I thought all the cars are built for "50 state" emissions requirements. If it is true I am wondering what the software does and if there is a performance tradeoff to get a car to meet the CA standards.

Edited December 21, 2012 by Douwe