The automobile sector running out of semiconductor chips to manufacture passenger vehicles.

Surat: The next time you plan to purchase a sedan, SUV, high-end cars, and other passenger cars, the waiting period is going to be quite long. Reason: the severe slowdown in the supply of semiconductor chips has brought automobile manufacturing operations to a grinding halt in the country.

Typically, a passenger vehicle uses around 1,000 semiconductor chips. With the severe global shortage of semiconductor processing chips, not showing the time of recovery, the automobile and technology industries the world over will continue to remain impacted till the later part of 2022.

The problem stems from the highly increased demand for personal computers, tablets, and smartphones during the Covid-19 pandemic. The phenomenal increase in the demand for semiconductor chips in the manufacturing of electronic goods largely diverted supply away from the automotive sector during the coronavirus pandemic.

The coronavirus-induced lockdown last year hugely impacted the sales of the passenger vehicles as people weren’t buying cars, thereby pushing The lockdowns last year, unfortunately, meant that people weren’t buying cars, pushing auto companies to significantly revise their production targets.

However, with the lockdown easing in the second half of 2020 and the vehicle sales climbing on the V-shaped recovery curve, driven largely by the pent-up demand as well as increased need for safer personal transportation due to coronavirus, the auto industry was caught unawares.

At present, the vehicle manufacturers in the UK, Germany, and India are faced with hardships in maintaining production schedules due to the lack of semiconductor-based electronic components like ECUs, infotainment systems, and sensors.

By MEHUL DESAI

(Writer is the founder of Mquik, the one-stop-auto-shop in Surat)