In case nobody has linked to this before, this article was in ‘What Car’ on September 2nd and might provide a clue or two.
VW: A spokesperson stated: “The Volkswagen Group’s task force has been working intensely to minimise the effects of the semiconductor bottleneck. Despite the chip shortage, the Group was actually able to deliver more cars in the first half of 2021 than in the same period of the previous year: the VW Passenger Cars brand delivered half a million vehicles, and Audi recorded the best half-year in its history. New outbreaks of Covid-19 in Asia, for example in Malaysia and Taiwan, are leading to renewed shuttering of key semiconductor manufacturing facilities. We therefore expect the supply of chips to remain very volatile and strained in the third quarter of 2021, but that the supply crisis will bottom out after this time. Further adjustments to production cannot be ruled out, but we expect to see an improvement in the supply of semiconductors by the end of the year.”
Some manufacturers are now also removing features from various models to save on ‘chips.