General Motors has idled its Chevrolet Equinox plant in Ingersoll, Ontario, for at least two months due to the ongoing global shortage of semiconductors.
“CAMI employees were notified this morning they will remain down through at least the week of June 28,” GM Canada spokeswoman Jennifer Wright said in an email to Automotive News Canada. “We continue to work closely with our supply base to mitigate the short-term impact and leverage every available semiconductor to build and ship our most popular and in-demand products, including full-size trucks and SUVs for our customers.”
The Equinox compact crossover is GM’s second best-selling vehicle in the U.S., where 63,218 were sold during the first quarter, down 14 percent from 2020. The Silverado remained GM’s top-selling vehicle int the quarter. GM also makes the vehicle in Mexico at the Ramos Arizpe and San Luis Potosi plants.
The Equinox ranks No. 4 in its segment in the U.S. behind the Toyota RAV4, Honda CR-V and Nissan Rogue, according to the Automotive News Data Center.
Unifor Local 88 represents about 1,900 hourly workers at the plant, which normally runs three shifts per day.
There appears to be no quick end in sight to the microchip shortage.
Sam Fiorani, vice-president of global vehicle forecasting at AutoForecast Solutions, on the April 30 edition of the Automotive News Canada Conversations podcast called the kink in the supply chain “uncharted waters” and expects it could last into 2022.
Meanwhile, Toyota Motor Corp.’s three plants in Ontario remained idle on Friday after production was halted this week due to a COVID-19 outbreak at a key parts supplier. The production stoppage affects the Toyota RAV, RAV4 hybrid, Lexus RX 350 and the RX 450h Hybrid. Toyota’s assembly plants employ more than 8,000 workers.
“We are monitoring the situation closely and will advise our production employees once the parts supply issue has been resolved,” a Toyota spokesman said in an e-mail to Automotive News.
