2022 is nearly half over and the worldwide microchip shortage is still a lingering issue hovering of the auto industry’s head. Demand for new vehicles is still high, dealership inventories are low, prices for new cars are being struck with “market adjustments”, and coveted models like the Ford F-150 Lightning, Bronco, and Maverick disappear before they even arrive at your local dealer. Now, industry reports estimate that the microchip shortage has put the production of 2.2 million vehicles behind schedule.
In a report by AutoForecast Solutions (AFS), this figure is a 10% increase compared to last year’s losses, and it appears that it’s going to get worse before it gets better.
A large chunk of unproduced vehicles comes from assembly plants in North America, with approximately 88% (205,200 units) of 234,200 vehicles added to the missing total. This brings the grand total of cars and trucks produced in North America missing from dealer lots to 780,000.
Although to numbers being put out by North American automakers isn’t looking too pretty, European brands have it much, much worse. EU automakers have suffered a production loss of 794,100 vehicles.
Chinese brands have lost approximately 107,300 cars, along with 437,900 units from Asian automakers, 98,200 South American cars, and 12,000 unproduced vehicles in Africa and the Middle East.
While AFS has calculated 2.2 million global losses so far, they believe that by the end of 2022 we could see an additional loss of 810,461 vehicles, bringing the grand total of over 3 million. Despite this being bad news, it could also suggest that the worst will be behind us.
Now that 2022 is nearly halfway done, availability for new inventory should begin improving. Ford CEO Jim Farley stated that the parts shortage should start to ease towards the end of the year.
Whether or not this means that prices will also improve with availablilty is unknown, yet very much recommended from a customer’s standpoint.