Automakers have cut 6,800 more vehicles out of their worldwide production schedules because of microchip shortages, according to the latest estimate by AutoForecast Solutions.
The adjustment is one of the lowest weekly production cuts since the microchip crisis emerged early last year. All of last week’s cuts occurred at North American assembly plants.
The week’s relatively modest impact may be welcome news, but worries still abound. During recent earnings calls, “the majority of automakers” said they expected the microchip shortage to limit production into early 2023, Josh Shastal, AutoForecast’s director of vehicle forecasting, wrote in an email.
Longer term, automakers were given new hope last week by the passage of the CHIPS and Science Act, which makes US$52 billion in subsidies available to spur microchip production capacity in the United States.