Shortages Affecting Auto Production: Semiconductor, foam, etc

the domestics have handled this shortage exceptionally well…

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Ok, seriously, when will the market supply catch up with demand? When will buyers get some relief?
This isn’t any fun anymore.

A lot of the chip shortage discussion is saying the chip makers may be caught up by q1 or 2 next year. I’d expect some amount of time to then get production on vehicles back up to speed and some amount of time for pent up demand to be satisfied.

Long story short, I wouldn’t expect it to that soon.

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And speaking of chip shortages, things could get considerably worse. In 1990, the US got “sucked” into the Arab Gulf war in Kuwait and Iraq in defense and protection of access to oil. In 2021-2022, I’d hate to see the US pulled into another conflict, this time with China, over defense of Taiwan’s independence and protection of world-wide access to important chip supply? Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC) is a critical supplier of chips to the automotive industry. Intel and other foundries outside of Taiwan need to step up soon to meet this demand before its too late.

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It’s going to be a thing for a while still. Brands and specific models may get some relief, but I’m not sure 2022 has a chance at producing like 2019.

I’ve been sharing news and research in this thread for 6 months so people can educate themselves on what’s going on, or just focus on the brand/model they care about. It’s not just complex finished goods that are inputs to manufacturing (chips & sub-assemblies) but commodities, and last week weather sent a bunch of finished and unfinished Fords and Jeeps to a watery grave.

Anything that reduces supply now is pushing prices up. None of us can make microcontrollers or steel, but we can pay attention to what market forces are against up. :man_shrugging:t2:

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This could change things extremely quickly.

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I also saw Biden proposing tens of billions to fix this mess. It won’t be anytime soon but the shortage will be over sooner than anticipated.

Billions in semiconductors fix things on a 1-3 year timeframe. It’s not a bad thing but won’t fix a short term supply shortage, unless it stops speculation.

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It’s great news if it passes. Most companies plan their CapEx (which this assuredly would be) annually. Not many companies who are contemplating this are sitting on the capital today to break ground, just because they can spend $1 and get a quarter back.

Of course the companies mentioned in the article, and Qualcomm, could benefit.

The chairman’s markup says

Effective for property placed in service on or after the end of the calendar year that includes the date of enactment.

So assuming they can find the money to pay for this (those - numbers are in millions):

any new chip plants that are open before the last day of this year would not be eligible for this tax credit.

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I’m sure any new chip plants will be much cleaner than the ones that used to be in silicon valley. There are so many superfund sites in the valley and now they are building houses on top of them (love canal comes to mind if anyone knows about that). I remembered looking at disclosures of my new house and it explained that the huge grassy areas that was there because it was too toxic to build homes so they turned it into a park.

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Just a splash of good news

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-06/bmw-takes-lead-in-u-s-luxury-market-amid-better-access-to-chips

  1. How mad were Infiniti and “Genesis” executives to be completely disappeared from this?

  2. This last paragraph :dart::dart::dart:

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this could be a long winter unless qualcomm steps up to the plate or plants can get an immediate payoff. that or just keeping the ICE XC40.

got $100 off on a mach-e last month, so I got that goin for me, which is nice…

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Some good news:

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Note to anyone looking to spec. a 2022 X7 xDrive 40i - if you want sensatec or vernasca, your only exterior choices are ametrin or tanzanite. Otherwise, it’s merino leather for you (that means multi-contour seats too)! Happy shopping! :slight_smile:

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I ordered a 2022 GLB35 (well equipped) back in early June. Dealership just notified me that some of the features/accessories we wanted will not be available on this and other Mercedes models in the near term. I suspect this is the case with other manufacturers as well.

Due to the chip shortage there are items that have been removed from the build by Mercedes-Benz. The Dashcam, Augmented video and Pre-Safe in the Driver’s assistant.

Part of me wishes I ordered my i3s when they had options like the Harman/Kardon back around March. Technically they pulled it from the configurator a few days before I submitted my order so I assume they would have still pulled it from the build before it entered production even if I made the cutoff.

I can’t be upset about pricing though since I got 6.55% off and I assume that I would have gotten ~ 8%-9% max in the first quarter of the year on a custom build. I learned last time that to get 10%+ off MSRP I would have to wait until around summer so I didn’t mind riding the lease out before ordering, which of course didn’t work out too well this year.

TSM says that they’re producing more microcontrollers by 60%. And “end of this quarter” means by September. Having spoken to quite a few people at dealerships, most think this will last until mid '22. But we have a direct source here that says it will end as soon as 2 months? That seems unexpectedly soon.

Who do you guys choose to believe here

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We have a direct source here that says it will “start to ease” in the next few months. The chip problem starting to get better and the chip problem being better are two very different things. Now factor in that those chips need to make their way through the supply chain into products, which takes time, and then into the cars those products go into, which takes time, and then build inventory levels back up to match demand. I don’t think the timelines between the chips starting to ease in Sept and vehicle issues dragging halfway into next year are that out of bed with each other.

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The truth will probably be somewhere in the middle, i.e. longer than 2 months but definitely not two years away. It reminds me of the early pandemic days, when some were saying a reliable vaccine would be 3+ years away. Of course dealers want you to think there won’t be chips ever again, and while we’re at it, did we mention how important the ‘protection package’ is?

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Since computer chips are so valuable, we need a chip protection package for every car leases.

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