It has also been mentioned in the news several times that the semiconductor chips used by car manufacturers are the old fashioned (and cheap) types, whereas those used by, for example, smart phone manufacturers are the newer (and far more expensive) ones. So they are not the same things.
When car manufacturers started to cut down on build volumes at the outset of the pandemic, chip manufacturers switched the vast majority of their production to the newer chips (which are also significantly more profitable) because, just as car manufacturing plummeted, sales of things such as smart phones and tablets skyrocketed with consumers spending loads more time at home (including working from home) . As Tim rightly says, car manufacturers didn’t have the presence of mind to stockpile the cheaper chips, with a few exceptions (e.g. Hyundai). This problem was further compounded by the fact that there are only a handful of major semiconductor manufacturing plants in the world and several of them had pandemic related production challenges and one, in the USA, had a major fire.
My personal experiences over the past few months really highlight all of the above. My BMW X1 order was slightly delayed (4 months from order to delivery) and one of the optional extras that I ordered was cancelled due to the chip shortage. During this time I ordered a new Apple iPhone. Ordered at 5pm and arrived at my house at 8.30am the next morning, even though we live in a rural area!
I have long said that Motability should scrap the arbitrary price and bhp caps and allow a far greater selection of vehicles onto the scheme. I agree that now would be a good time to do this. However, in spite of my criticisms of Motability, the current lack of certain cars due to the semiconductor supply issue is not of their making and they shouldn’t be beaten up over it. They should, however, have a big red message on the car selector front page of their website apologising for the lack of choice at present and explaining the reasons why. Failure to do this is opening them up to unfair criticism, as we have seen.