Automakers cut about 110,300 vehicles from their production schedules because of the microchip shortage last week as losses in China mounted, according to the latest estimate by AutoForecast Solutions.
While new schedule cutbacks occurred in every region of the world, nearly three-quarters of them came out of Chinese factory plans, which logged 83,000 lost vehicles for the week because of the chip shortage. AutoForecast estimates about 980,700 vehicles have been axed by the industry so far this year, a 13-per-cent rise from a week earlier. But despite that increase, AutoForecast Solutions stuck to its full-2023 forecast for production losses.
German supplier ZF Group said last week it signed a multiple-year supply agreement with chipmaker STMicroelectronics to receive millions of new silicon carbide chips to be integrated into its new inverter platform for electric vehicles.