The microchip shortage is affecting primarily North American and European vehicle production schedules this week, representing the bulk of cutbacks worldwide, according to a new AutoForecast Solutions estimate.
North American assembly plants have cut 29,315 vehicles out of their schedules, and Europe’s manufacturers have dropped 15,096 this week, AutoForecast Solutions reports.
Except for a small blip in the industry’s Middle East/Africa production region of 119 cancellations, the factory schedule changes in North America and Europe reflect the only chip-related setbacks for the week.
But the production forecasting firm is not budging on its longer-range estimate for full-year 2023 global vehicle cuts resulting from the chip shortage. AutoForecast Solutions anticipates 2.8 million cuts for the year — more or less the same estimate it has given since 2023 began.
That is more than 2 million vehicles more than what has been cut in the first three months of the year.
“There is light at the end of this particular tunnel,” Sam Fiorani, AutoForecast vice president of global vehicle forecasting, said in an email, “but the industry has a distance to travel before we get out.”
