AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)04/15 Report--

Chip shortages continue to intensify, and many car companies have announced production cuts or production cuts due to chip outages, a problem that has affected domestic automakers. FAW-Volkswagen Audi will reduce production by 30% in April due to chip shortage, according to First Finance and Economics. With reference to FAW-Volkswagen Audi sales in March, its production reduction in April will exceed 20,000 vehicles.

It is understood that the main chips that cause FAW-Volkswagen Audi to stop production include door controller, gateway controller, central control display screen, body stability control system (ESP), etc., among which the gateway controller may face 6 weeks of shutdown. If the shortage of gateway controller is not solved, Audi's production reduction will continue until June this year.

At present, dealers have received production reduction notices from manufacturers. An Audi dealer in Shanghai told the media that "production cuts will be in about two weeks, involving A4L, A6L and Q5L models." Another Audi dealer said: "Since December last year, there has been a shortage of cars, and now the inventory is about 120 cars, mainly low-end models, mainly A3, Q2 and Q3." According to the above dealers, due to the influence of supply and demand, the terminal preferential margin of A4L, A6L and Q5L has been reduced. For example, the preferential margin of A4L in the terminal market is about 18%, which has been adjusted back to about 14%-15% recently.

However, FAW-Volkswagen Audi officials have not responded to the news of production cuts until publication.

Chip outage has become a global industry problem, which has caused certain impact on global automobile manufacturers and has gradually affected the domestic market. A week ago, some models of SAIC Volkswagen were phased out due to a shortage of chips. SAIC Volkswagen said that at this stage, it will optimize the production scheduling plan according to market demand, giving priority to ensuring the production capacity of products with large market demand. SAIC Volkswagen said it would coordinate with Volkswagen China suppliers around the world to optimize resource allocation as much as possible, hoping to fill the gap in the coming months.

Entering the second quarter, the shortage of semiconductor chips for automobiles has not been alleviated. On April 12, the U.S. government held the "Recovery Semiconductor and Supply Chain CEO Summit," inviting companies including General Motors, Ford Motor, NXP Semiconductors of the Netherlands, TSMC, Samsung Electronics of South Korea, Dell, Intel and others to discuss chip shortages. Intel CEO Pat Kissinger said that due to soaring demand and limited production capacity, the global chip supply shortage that has hit the automotive industry and other manufacturers will take several years to ease. Gelsinger said Intel plans to start producing automotive chips in its own factories within the next six to nine months to ease the shortage of chips.

On April 9, the China Automobile Association released a report saying that passenger car production and sales in March this year fell by 10% compared with 2019. Under the background of good overall market development, the decline in production and sales may be related to the shortage of semiconductor chips. The China Automobile Association said that the tight supply of chips and other parts will continue to affect the pace of production, and it is expected that the impact in the second quarter will be greater than that in the first quarter.

A small chip has seriously affected the production and sales of the global automobile market, which has also caused automakers to increase the importance of automotive chips. At present, domestic independent automobile enterprises have begun to lay out the chip field, SAIC, Great Wall, BYD and other automobile enterprises have invested in the domestic chip enterprise horizon. Li Shaohua, deputy secretary-general of China Automobile Association, pointed out that China's automobile industry has entered a period of platform adjustment, and mastering core technologies is the key to the development of industrial chain.

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