The "chip shortage" problem continues to spread, and the annual automobile production in 2021 may decrease by 4.5 million vehicles

Recently, market research firm Bernstein Research released a research report stating that as the automotive industry is still plagued by the "chip shortage" problem in 2021, it is expected that global automobile production will be reduced by up to 4.5 million vehicles. This figure is about 5% of the global automobile production in the past decade.

According to Bernstein Research, the reason for this problem is that in addition to the impact of the epidemic on the upstream supply chain, it is also closely related to the strong counterattack of the mass consumer electronics industry.

Data released by Gartner shows that in Q4 2020, global PC device shipments increased by 10% year-on-year. For the upstream semiconductor supply chain, the mass consumer electronics industry brings more considerable profits than the automotive industry. For example, TSMC's latest financial report shows that automotive customers can contribute less than 5% of revenue, while Apple, a mass consumer electronics company, alone feeds the entire TSMC.

Under the impact of the epidemic, the production capacity of the upstream semiconductor supply chain itself has shrunk to a certain extent, while mass consumer electronics products have a strong demand for semiconductors. These two relative trends have led to a "chip shortage" problem in the automotive industry.

However, as the new energy vehicle industry is on the eve of an explosion, the "chip shortage" problem in the automotive industry has a greater impact on traditional auto companies. For example, Klaus Zilmer, sales director of Volkswagen Group, previously revealed: "Volkswagen's global production in 2021 may be reduced by 100,000 vehicles due to chip problems."

In this regard, industry analysts said that although the delivery volume of new car companies continues to rise, their scale is relatively small, so the "impact of chip shortages is limited", and this may also become a new starting point for the competition between new energy vehicles and fuel vehicles.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.