In the global supply chain scramble for missing microchips, France’s Renault has emerged as a new trouble spot, according to the latest weekly industry report from AutoForecast Solutions.
Europe leads the global industry in this week’s AFS estimate of projected chip-related factory output reductions. Its estimate for cuts at Renault’s Romanian plant alone rose by 92,800 vehicles from a week earlier.
AFS reports that Renault is trimming vehicle output at plants in France, Romania, Turkey and Spain, much as other automakers have trimmed back output at various assembly plants around the world since January.
The AFS weekly forecast projects that North American plant reductions did not substantially increase for the week, beyond the million-plus vehicles that were announced over the past several weeks.
In North America, AFS increased its reduction estimate for only four vehicle programs: 2,500 for Ford Motor Co.’s Lincoln MKX/Nautilus line (Oakville, Ontario); 3,500 for Stellantis’ Pacifica and Voyager assembly (Windsor, Ontario); and 4,200 for Nissan Motor Co.’s Infiniti QX50 line (Aguascalientes, Mexico).
AFS is tracking two sets of numbers on a weekly basis: one, a tally of production cuts that automakers are announcing; the other, its own forecast of what the firm anticipates as a likely scenario, calculating how many units of production could be lost as the chip shortage lingers.
