German carmakers are changing the established production process

Large German manufacturers of passenger cars and commercial vehicles are changing the established production process due to the lack of chips. They put away almost finished cars so that they could later equip them with important parts and only put them on the market. According to information from Daimler Truck, which manufactures commercial vehicles and trucks, there are a significant number of manufactured trucks that lack important parts. Volkswagen, which is the largest car manufacturer in Europe, has also taken up the possibility of storing unfinished cars with the necessary missing components and semiconductors at a later date. Microchips are indispensable for automotive production. Electronics are present everywhere in cars - from the on-board computer to the sensors. Several factors have contributed to the current shortage of chips. One of the most fundamental is the increased demand for consumer electronics due to the pandemic, but the growth in demand for chips also supports the continuing interest in cloud services and cryptocurrency mining. The current crisis was also exacerbated by a fire at Japanese chip maker Renesas Electronics in March this year. The supply of chips was also negatively affected by the March blockade of the Suez Canal, which is one of the busiest routes for merchant ships. The shortage of semiconductors, meanwhile, has reached unprecedented proportions. According to an estimate by the consulting company Alix Partners, the entire automotive industry could lose revenues of $ 210 billion this year. The demand is huge, but supply cannot satisfy it.