General Motors has idled its Chevrolet Equinox plant in Ingersoll, Ont., for at least two months due to the ongoing global shortage of semiconductors.
“CAMI employees were notified this morning they will remain down through at least the week of June 28,” GM Canada spokeswoman Jennifer Wright said in an email to Automotive News Canada. “We continue to work closely with our supply base to mitigate the short-term impact and leverage every available semiconductor to build and ship our most popular and in-demand products, including full-size trucks and SUVs for our customers.”
The Equinox was GM’s third best-selling vehicle in Canada during the first quarter, after just the Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups. GM Canada sold 2,613 Equinox crossovers in the quarter, down 31 per cent from a year ago.
The Equinox is GM’s second best-selling vehicle in the United States, where 63,218 were sold during the first quarter, trailing only the Silverado.
Unifor Local 88 represents about 1,900 hourly workers at the plant, which normally runs three shifts per day.
There appears to be no quick end in sight to the microchip shortage.
Sam Fiorani, vice-president of global vehicle forecasting at AutoForecast Solutions, on the April 30 edition of the Automotive News Canada Conversations podcast called the kink in the supply chain “uncharted waters” and expects it could last into 2022
