Tesla wants to make an advance payment for the chips

According to a newspaper report, the electric car maker Tesla has opened a new front in the battle for the supply of chips amid an industry-wide shortage. Tesla wants to make an advance payment for the chips or even offer the purchase of its own factory, writes the "Financial Times" (FT). Tesla is specifically trying to get chips from manufacturers in Taiwan and South Korea who make the newer generation models, but also in the United States, according to a report in the newspaper, which cites industry sources. As for buying a work directly, sources said these plans are in the early stages as such an endeavor could be too expensive. A Tesla spokesman could not be immediately reached for comment. The FT reports, citing an informant from the environment of the chip manufacturer Samsung, that the latter is open to talks with Tesla. The management consultancy Alixpartners estimates the worldwide production downtime of vehicles due to the lack of chips this year to be 3.9 million units with a value of 110 billion dollars. "A significant proportion of this will also be reflected in the manufacturers' sales figures, which will be partially offset by the reduction in inventories," said Alix expert Marcus Kleinfeld. Due to the lack of semiconductor chips, car manufacturers such as Ford, Audi, VW and Daimler have already canceled shifts and had to cut back on production. The chip giant Intel recently warned that the bottlenecks could last for several years - also because investments do not take effect immediately. The shortage was triggered, among other things, by the skyrocketing demand for technology such as laptops in the corona pandemic and inventory purchases by the Chinese Huawei group in view of US sanctions.