Feb. 21, 2023–The microchip shortage has been an issue impacting different industries, but particularly the auto industry; and while some have said the situation is improving, auto manufacturers have not experienced much ease, Kelley Blue Book reports.
Since production of vehicles has ramped back up after the height of the pandemic, manufacturers have struggled to receive the supply they need. Electronic sales rose from consumers staying at home, and those industries have become chip manufacturers' highest priority.
Though there has been a rise in chip production, with the president of the Malaysia Semiconductor Industry Association, Datuk Seri Wong Siew, having said the problem was resolved “last November,” it has been anything but for the auto industry.
Unlike other industries, auto manufacturers require “older, lower-capacity” chips for their vehicles.
“I know there’s been a lot of discussion about ‘Well, the chip supply issue is over,’ but on the larger, older nodes that are primarily the chips we use in the auto industry there is still capacity constraints,” Ford Chief Financial Officer John Lawler told investors in early February.
General Motors is one company that is attempting to find solutions to the issue, with CEO Mary Barra saying last summer that GM “is working to design cars that use fewer higher-power chips that control multiple functions” in order to gain access to the widely available, high-functioning chips.
