so if there is a chip shortage then anything that uses chips should be in short supply too Such as TV computers phones apple watches and many other products chips are in a lot of things but it seams that petrol and diesel cars were the hardest hit And now there is a shortage of cars available on Motability but if you are a retail customer you can order one it might take a long time but you will get it If you are disabled and motability customer you can’t Motability could extend your lease until you get your car Or make more cars available Is it sensible to keep the price cap or bhp cap when there is a shortage of cars in the popular segments Open up the choice of cars that are in stock until the production ramps up Its a quick and easy to just remove cars from the list Have they removed any EVs from the list you know because of the pesky chips
Hi there. Since you haven’t noticed, no, petrol and diesel cars weren’t the hardest hit. In fact, the type of fuel it uses makes no difference, since the issue is with the electronics, not with the mechanics of cars. That one thing.
The next, i don’t know if you live in a cave, but it was literally in the news all over the world as to how hard it is to “score” a Playstation 5. Try it yourself. And then remember that it released in November last year. Same with high end GPUs. 3080s, 3090 etc also suffered from that (on top of scalping, but that’s a different story).
Manufacturers for the entertainment industry get priority (and still can’t keep up with demand). Car manufacturers are around 3% of the global chip market, entertainment industry is 90%. Who do you think a chip maker is going to cater to? Last year, TSMC recorded 3% sales to car manufacturers. And it’s not like a car maker just calls TSMC and “buys” 500.000 chips, next day delivery. They have to be made, and capacities are scarce – with, as mentioned, the entertainment industry getting priority. There’s no chips “in storage”.
Here’s the thing. The car sector is on track to lose around 100 billion dollars this year. I’m pretty sure they’re not doing that out of spite so you don’t get your mercedes in top trim. They’re doing it because there’s big issues at the moment that you don’t understand.
Second, no, so far no EVs have been removed. First of all, an EV requires less electronics than a petrol engine (not sure about diesel to be honest). An electric drivetrain is as simple as it gets unless you want to go to steam. Though, obviously, i don’t think that’s the reason no EVs got removed – the real reason is that nothing on the scheme will hold value as well as EVs will, making Motability money – hence they’re willing to potentially take a worse deal for them, or fight harder to keep them.
In regards to trying to blame manufacturers for, lets be very real here, running their business profitable, i mean.. Doesn’t sound entitled to you? Yeah you can buy top spec cars private – but even then, in case for example for mercedes, your car isn’t complete at delivery. The MBUX AR system including the natural voice recognition stuff needs to be retro-fitted. That’s what the warning means when you’re in the configurator at Mercedes. They’ll give you a vague time frame, you get your car, and a few months (or more) down the line you get a call for an appointment to activate/install the rest of what you paid for.
And that’s for private customers. Of course private customers get priority, i don’t understand how anyone could argue that. That’s where the most money is, that’s where brand building happens. Car manufacturers aren’t charities – even if you get the car through Motability. If you’re on track to lose 100 billion monies, you serve the customers that pay more, and try to tie them to your brand so their next car is another jaguar/mercedes/whatever.
It’s not rocket science.
Prior: SEAT Ateca Xcellence Lux 1.5 TSI DSG MY19, VW Golf GTE PHEV DSG MY23
Current: Hyundai Ioniq 6 Ultimate
Next: we'll see what's available in 2028.