Why Volkswagen Chips Are Out of Stock
2 Answers
Here are the reasons for the shortage of Volkswagen chips: 1. Impact of upstream industries: The strike by employees of upstream chip supplier ST Company has damaged the chip supply chain of SAIC and FAW. ST Company is a European automotive semiconductor chip supplier with an extremely high market share in the field of vehicle main control systems. The most important main control system chips for SAIC Volkswagen and FAW Volkswagen come from ST Company. The workers' strike in France in November led to insufficient production capacity at ST Company, which has had a significant impact on downstream automakers. 2. Fire at a supplier: A fire at Japan's Asahi Kasei Microdevices semiconductor company destroyed most of its core wafers. Most importantly, the company's crystal oscillators account for more than half of the market share in the automotive industry. This fire has resulted in a potential one-year or more delay in resuming chip supply, severely affecting the chips for automotive entertainment systems. 3. Insufficient self-sufficiency: The automotive industry's chip supply chain heavily relies on external suppliers, with a self-sufficiency rate of less than 10%, making it highly vulnerable to risks. Although China is the largest automobile producer, it relies heavily on imports for many core components, leading to poor risk resistance in the domestic automotive industry.
The Volkswagen chip shortage issue is actually quite complex. I've noticed that the main problem stems from disruptions in the global supply chain. The pandemic caused many chip factories to suspend operations, with the shutdown of packaging plants in Malaysia particularly affecting supply. Additionally, Volkswagen's own inventory strategy was too aggressive - maintaining virtually zero inventory to reduce costs left them vulnerable when unexpected events occurred. The booming electric vehicle market has also doubled demand for automotive chips, but expanding chip production capacity takes time - reportedly 2-3 years to build a new factory. Recent international logistics capacity constraints and soaring container prices have further delayed chip shipments by weeks at sea. Another critical factor was the fire at Renesas Electronics' factory late last year - this supplier happened to provide Volkswagen with crucial MCU chips, creating a double whammy that broke the supply chain.
