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Ford Motor announced another production cut due to the shortage of global supply of automotive chips. Ford's announced production cuts include pickup trucks and SUV models. It is reported that on March 3, Ford confirmed that it will stop work at two of its plants next week, including factories in Kentucky and Ohio, where production of Ford Super Duty pickup trucks, Ford Expedition and Lincoln navigators will be suspended, and production of medium-sized pickup trucks and chassis assemblies will be suspended at Ohio plants.

As mentioned at the beginning of the article, this is Ford Motor once again announced production cuts due to lack of core. Early last month, Ford announced that it would suspend production at eight plants in Michigan, Illinois, Missouri and Mexico for the week starting February 7, including Ford Bronco and Explorer SUV; Ford Fmur150 and Ranger pickup trucks; Ford Mustang Mach-E Electric SUV and Lincoln pilot SUV.

The global chip shortage has become a commonplace problem in the past two years. As a result, many car companies around the world are also facing pressure to cut production or stop production. According to the auto industry's concern, it was previously reported that the global chip shortage began in December 2020. At that time, Volkswagen, Ford, Toyota and other car companies were forced to reduce production and other ways to deal with the shortage of chips.

Looking back over the past two years, because the shortage of chips has had a great impact on the entire automobile industry, in addition to the impact that many car companies mentioned above have been forced to adjust their production plans and stop production, another significant impact is that a number of car companies have announced price increases for their models, according to the statistics concerned by the automobile industry. Due to the shortage of chips and the fluctuation of raw material prices (of course, not all the reasons for the increase in vehicle prices are caused by this factor), more than 10 new energy vehicle companies in the automotive industry have announced price adjustments. including Tesla, Xiaopeng Automobile, Nahan Automobile, GAC Ean, Zero and other new energy vehicle brands, involving more than 30 models, prices range from less than 100000 yuan to more than 300000 yuan. Among them, the increase of models under 100000 yuan is relatively high, with an average price increase of about 4800 yuan.

On the 23rd of last month, CCTV Finance reported that due to a serious shortage of chips, prices across the board rose, and the original 20 yuan car chip was speculated to 2800 yuan, excluding tax. CCTV Finance said in a report that at present, the prices of most automotive chips are rising, with a small increase of several times, but compared with soaring prices, what is more serious is that there is no chip problem. Industry insiders said that since last year, affected by the epidemic, the production capacity of chip factories in Southeast Asia and other places has fallen sharply, and the supply of automotive chips exceeds demand. Industry insiders pointed out that the problem of chip shortage will continue in the short term, and automakers will still face the pressure of core shortage during this period, which is expected to be alleviated in the second half of this year or 2023.

In this environment, the vehicle production capacity of many car companies has been affected to a certain extent. GM said it would temporarily abandon the seat heating function; Toyota announced that it would lower its March production target, and after that, also because of the global shortage of semiconductors, many Toyota factories in Japan were forced to suspend production lines, which directly led to a decline in Toyota vehicle production capacity. Volkswagen has limited orders for ID models because of a shortage of chips. Volkswagen has limited the number of ID pure electric models that can be ordered by dealers in its German retail network, including more ID.3 hatchbacks and ID.4 crossovers for dealers with higher sales, while smaller dealers get less supply, according to relevant information. Dealers with annual sales of less than 999 vehicles can only order 15 ID.3 and 25 ID.4. Mercedes-Benz suspended orders for German E-Class cars. According to previous reports, due to a shortage of chips, Mercedes-Benz was unable to meet the growing consumer demand for the model, so it made a decision to suspend orders for E-Class cars. Ford is also one of the automakers most affected by the shortage of automotive chips. At the end of January, Ford's popular Mustang Mustang stopped production because of a lack of chips. Data show that 2021 was the worst year in Ford Mustang Mustang sales history, with annual sales of only 52414 vehicles. Separately, in February last month, Ford said a shortage of chips could lead to a drop in its car sales this quarter. Ford sold 2044744 vehicles in 2020, while sales in the US fell 6.8 per cent to 1905955 in the past 2021, trailing Toyota and general motors, according to figures. However, Ford's sales in China are relatively satisfactory. Ford sold 624802 vehicles in 2021, an increase of 3.7% over the same period last year, and this is the first time that Ford's sales in China have surpassed the US market.

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