An AutoForecast Solutions report covered by Car and Driver reveals the extent to which North American automakers have been impacted by the microchip shortage
Ford has taken 346,616 vehicles out of production while General Motors has reduced its total by 277,966
Vital for everything from a vehicle's onboard computer and infotainment system to important safety features like anti-lock breaks and stability control, the chips have been in short supply around the world for months
Many factors contributed to the shortage such as a fire at an automotive chip plant in Japan, tighter supply chains after the Ever Given grounding in the Suez Canal, as well as a lack of oil for the plastic used in chips due to the big freeze in Texas
The pandemic of course also played a role with many automakers cancelling orders due to slacking demand for vehicles, a decision they are now regretting as the market recovers
When it comes to the worst impacted models, the Ford F-Series pickup comes first with its production reduced by 109,710 units due to the microchip shortage
98,584 fewer Jeep Cherokees are planned, while Chevrolet Equinox production will fall by 81,833
With Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger recently remarking that the problem could take a couple of years to resolve, there is no light at the end of the tunnel just yet for hard pressed automakers
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Norway is leading the world in BEV market development and we will now start using the quarterly sales in the Norway market as a proxy window to view the vehicles that are being offered for sale in Europe
Here is Norway market share by vehicle for 2021 Q1
As many of you know, we have also started analysing the characteristics of BEVs offered in Europe using vehicles available in Germany as our reference point and the ADAC database as our data source
This is one of the charts from our current analysis
Our summary charts already include some "Tesla Model 3 ICEV Competitors" selected by ADAC plus most of the top-selling BEVs in Norway
- and we will add more over time to build out a more complete picture of the higher volume vehicles
The idea of the self-contained EV skateboard chassis has become so alluring that startups, suppliers and even automakers are marketing them as plug-and-play solutions on which customers can simply add a body, also called "top hat"
But like many catchy ideas on the path to electromobility, this one is also stumbling as it meets the hard reality of going from vision to vehicle development and manufacturing
Germany's car industry association VDA is at loggerheads with its most important member, the Volkswagen Group
On the surface, it's about membership fees, but in fact it's about everything for the VDA wiwo.de/unternehmen/au…
The dispute is remarkable
VDA versus Volkswagen
Germany's car industry association against Germany's largest car company
The VDA wants to increase the contributions from its members, Volkswagen does not want to go along
VW, however, is not concerned with money but with principle :
VW boss Herbert Diess does not see why he should throw money at an association which, from VW's point of view, is useless and sometimes even damaging to its business
The Blue line on this chart gives us a very simple way to think of the economics of the Tesla Model 3 :
Market Price = €20,000 + €100 x Power in kW
- and note that this number INCLUDES Tariffs and Delivery Charges
Clearly this is just an observed empirical outcome
- but we can impute various things from it
1. The launch of production at Giga Grünheide should allow Tesla to reduce prices by more than 10% just from the elimination of Tariffs and reduction of Delivery Charges
2. This could imply a revised formula for an equivalent European-made vehicle, before counting any other savings :