More than 3 million vehicles have been axed from automakers’ production schedules worldwide so far this year because of the microchip shortage — but that might be an undercount, according to AutoForecast Solutions.
About 66,800 vehicles were added by AutoForecast Solutions to its running tally of chip-related production cuts this week, bringing the year-to-date total to nearly 3.1 million vehicles. That’s on top of about 10.5 million vehicles lost to the shortage in 2021.
But this year’s actual total might be higher than any official count indicates, said Sam Fiorani, AutoForecast’s vice president of global vehicle forecasting.
“Outside factors have allowed the lost weekly volumes attributed to semiconductors to be hidden,” Fiorani wrote in an email. “There are now more reasons for shutting down plants, including more parts shortages affected by the global supply chain.”
Auto factories in every region of the world made additional cuts last week, according to the group. Plants in North America led the way, with about 22,300 vehicles trimmed, followed by China (17,600), other parts of Asia (13,400), Europe (8,800), South America (3,200) and the Middle East and Africa (1,500).
