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French carmaker Renault is expected to cut production by at least 300000 vehicles this year because of chip shortages, up from the 220000 Renault expected to cut production in early September, the Financial Associated Press reported. "Renault's forecasts have been changing, but production cuts this year will be between 300000 and 400000 vehicles," said a person familiar with the matter. " This will account for at least 8 per cent of Renault's total production of 3.75 million vehicles in 2019. Two other people familiar with the matter also revealed that Renault's production reduction could be between 350000 and 380000 vehicles. Pierre-Yves Quemener, an analyst at Stifel, said that if Renault's production reduction could be limited to 350000 vehicles this year, it would be an "achievement" for the company. "this will mean that Renault will significantly improve the current situation in the fourth quarter, which in my opinion is very, very ambitious," he said. "

It is understood that as early as January this year, Renault Group issued a "Renaulution" strategic plan, saying that by 2025, it will launch seven pure electric vehicles, and all new models will launch pure electric or hybrid versions. On June 30th, Renault Group released the "eWays ElectroPop" plan, announcing the launch of 10 new pure electric vehicles by 2025, and the sales of pure electric and electrified models will account for more than 65%, while by 2030, Renault Group will account for 90% of the sales of electric products. According to relevant data, from January to June this year, the global sales of the Renault brand exceeded 900000, an increase of 18.5% compared with the same period last year. Among them, Europe accounts for 59% of sales; it is not difficult to see that Renault's European market survived after Renault withdrew from the Chinese market. However, with the aggravation of the chip shortage, whether Renault can successfully implement the "eWays ElectroPop" plan has yet to be tested by the market.

As we all know, the shortage of chips has put a lot of pressure on the global automobile industry since the second half of 2020. According to incomplete statistics, due to the continuing impact of chip shortage, the cumulative number of cars stopped production in the world has reached 2.99 million. Toyota, Honda, General Motors, Ford, BMW and other car companies have announced varying degrees of production suspension, production cuts. On Oct. 15, Toyota officials said it would cut production in November due to a shortage of chips, a reduction of between 100000 and 150000 vehicles compared with previous plans. On Sept. 3, GM announced that it would suspend operations at most North American plants due to global chip shortages and would make further adjustments in line with the progress of the supply chain. On January 7th, Honda announced that it would cut production by 4000 vehicles in January due to a shortage of semiconductor chips in its vehicle control system. In addition, because of the shortage of chips, Ford, Skoda, Nissan and Volkswagen simultaneously announced plans to cut production earlier this month.

According to data from the China Automobile Association, China's automobile production and sales in September were 2.077 million and 2.067 million respectively, up 20.4% and 14.9% respectively from the previous month, and down 17.9% and 19.6% respectively from the same period last year. The decline in output was 0.8% lower than that in August, and the decline in sales volume was 1.8% higher than that in August. Xu Haidong, deputy chief engineer of the China Automobile Association, said: affected by the continuing shortage of chip supply, the operating pressure of the automobile industry is still very great. "judging from the situation in that month, the supply of chips eased slightly, but it still could not meet the production needs, coupled with the high base in the same period last year, so automobile production and sales increased month-on-month, but decreased compared with the same period last year." PFA, an automotive industry group, also said that the timing of the chip crisis may be the worst, as carmakers recover from the COVID-19 epidemic and begin to transition to electric vehicles. The group also said the chip supply shortage could continue into 2022.

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