Bronco

Make
Ford
Segment
SUV

The Ford Bronco is one of the most highly anticipated reveals of the year. Anxious buyers have placed their orders and all that's left is to wait for production to get underway and deliveries to begin. The assembly is reportedly due to get up and running beginning next week, May 3. However, this will not be a full production launch but rather just the start. In other words, it's going to take additional time to see full production capacity.

Sources familiar with the schedule claim the full production ramp-up isn't due to begin until sometime this August. A precise date is not yet available. Even though that's still at least four months from now, it's good to hear it's still happening at all. The global semiconductor chip shortage is causing massive headaches for automakers, including Ford.

It's already had to idle several plants, including the Flat Rock Assembly, home of the Mustang. Even the popular F-150 hasn't been immune to this shortage. For now, dealers have sufficient inventory but this isn't expected to last much longer. As for the Bronco, next month's and the August production schedule indicate Ford has a reserved supply of chips on hand specifically for the SUV at the Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, Michigan.

Ford claims that 125,000 of the 190,000 reservation holders have since converted those reservations into orders, which is quite an impressive number. Some potential buyers ultimately decided to cancel their orders because of production delays.

Those who've placed an order are being sent so-called "scheduled for production" emails that include information such as VIN, confirmation of trim level and configuration, option packages, the number of allocations the buyer's dealer has received, and even an estimated delivery window. Those first deliveries will begin sometime in June.

People who either canceled their orders or don't like the idea of buying a first model-year vehicle will likely be able to begin placing orders for a 2022 model in the fall. Of course, they'll have to wait in line until all 2021 orders are fulfilled, but Ford supposedly has a few updates planned for the new model year. It might be worth the wait.