Pickups are now bearing more of the load from the ongoing semiconductor chip shortage that’s been pummeling the industry for months. Pickups now account for 17 percent of the vehicles that have been taken out of North American production schedules, April 13 figures from AutoForecast Solutions show. That’s nearly double the 9 percent figure from early March, when automakers appeared to be able to steer their limited chip supplies to higher-profit vehicles.
Last year, pickups accounted for 20 percent of U.S. vehicle sales.
The changes are reflected at Ford Motor Co., which announced last week more downtime at several assembly plants. They include the Kansas City, Mo., line that builds the popular F-150 pickup, which was recently redesigned.
Ford accounted for a net total of 30,400 vehicles affected in North America last week, according to AutoForecast Solutions’ April 16 report.
Also affected, out of Stellantis: More than 9,000 Jeep Cherokee midsize SUVs (Belvidere, Ill.); nearly 4,000 Chrysler Voyager and Pacifica minivans (Windsor, Ont.); and more than 2,200 Ram 1500 pickups (Warren, Mich.).
Nissan lost production of more than 1,330 Rogue compact crossovers (Smyrna, Tenn.) last week.
The latest changes raise the number of vehicles not produced globally because of announced shutdowns and slowdowns to 1.68 million, up from 1.53 million a week earlier. AFS now projects more than 2.71 million stand to be affected.
