Toyota’s announced cuts in production last week led to a significant rise in the number of vehicles lost worldwide resulting from the one-two punch of resurging COVID-19 infections around the world and an unyielding tight capacity for microchip production.
Automakers cut an additional 481,707 vehicles out of planned production schedules because of microchip shortages, according to the most recent report from AutoForecast Solutions.
Toyota accounted for the 10 largest factory reductions, with affected plants in North America, Japan and China.
AFS now estimates that the industry has lost about 6,442,000 vehicles worldwide because of the supply chain interruption. The situation has worsened in recent weeks because of higher numbers of COVID-19 cases in Southeast Asia, a problem that recently shut down a major semiconductor plant in Malaysia.
Factories in Asia, outside of China, were the largest source of new vehicle production cuts, with more than 215,000 additional cars and trucks being trimmed as a result. North American assembly plants were next, with more than 148,000 cuts made since one week earlier.
AFS now forecasts that the industry eventually will lose up to 7.65 million vehicles to the microchip shortage.
