Several car manufacturers had already anticipated that by the end of 2022 the situation, regarding the microchip crisis, should be fully or almost completely resolved. This is how General Motors expected it in the United States, for example, but it seems that the forecasts have not been right. They said that in the last months of this year the situation was almost normal, but right now they have 95,000 unfinished cars, and parked, waiting for the semiconductors they need to arrive.
Each manufacturer has made a different decision. Some have reduced their production to adapt to the available supply of semiconductors. Some have reduced their offer of finishes and have focused on the most profitable versions, and some have simply anticipated the problems, as is the case with Hyundai and KIA. But there have also been other different measures, such as that of General Motors. The well-known American company chose to keep up its pace and simply store ‘half-made’ cars, leaving them waiting for the necessary semiconductors to arrive at the factory.
95,000 unfinished cars and forecasts are not as good as expected
Faced with the measures of other automobile manufacturers, as we advanced, General Motors has chosen to continue manufacturing cars at the same rate as before. But they have been storing them in their facilities, and they have been leaving them standing there waiting for the microchips necessary to have the finished product and be able to deliver it to customers. The problem with all this is that they expected the supply of microchips to recover in the last months of 2022, and unfortunately, that is not the case. Or at least they’re not at the supply levels they anticipated.
Right now, General Motors has 95,000 cars unfinished, parked, and waiting to receive the chips they need to install them and deliver them to customers. In short, they have been making incomplete cars waiting to be able to finish them later. But the recovery in the pace and volume of supply is lagging behind expectations. General Motors executive Mary Barra has pointed out that the situation has not improved as soon as expected and that right now they expect the crisis to continue until 2023.
And in reality, some companies have already given an even worse forecast. One of the most pessimistic companies about this problem has been Intel. And it is a company that has a lot of knowledge of the sector because they are specifically dedicated to the design, development, and production of semiconductors for all types of products. And according to indications from Intel, the crisis could continue until the year 2024.
General Motors they have requested that production be extended in the United States and that new semiconductor production plants be opened. And the truth is that the American industry, and also the European, have already taken some measures that point precisely in this direction. But it is something that takes time and, although it will not solve the current semiconductor crisis, it should guarantee that something similar does not happen again in the future.
