Will buying a car become more difficult?
Online Economy – Parham Karimi; Major automakers are facing a huge amount of demand, which is estimated at 6.5 million vehicles. While the shortage of chips continues to reduce their production activities and lead to long waiting periods for customers. India’s largest carmaker, Maruti Suzuki India alone, is about 3.4 million units behind demand, while Hyundai and Mahindra have a combined backlog of about 3,000 units. Other car manufacturers such as Tata Motor, Kia and Honda are also facing a large volume of pending orders.
As the auto industry slowly recovers from the shocks of the pandemic, in recent times, even luxury automakers have seen demand outpace supply, resulting in backlogs of orders.
Shashank Srivastava, Chief Executive Officer (Marketing & Sales), Maruti Suzuki India, said: “According to our estimates, the demand should be around 6.5 million units in the passenger car market, and this figure will cross the 3.4 million mark for Maruti Suzuki alone. has done.” According to him, increasing production is the only way out of this situation. He went on to say, “For the last two quarters, the sales volume is more than nine million. This is the first time in the Indian automobile industry that sales have crossed nine million sales in two consecutive quarters. This means that the demand is still very strong.”
According to him, the list of pending orders has grown due to the chip supply problems that have been going on for nearly two years, and he added: “Reducing the production backlog takes time.” And this list will continue to decrease with the increase in production.
An official of Tata Motors said that the waiting period for buying passenger cars takes between 4 and 12 weeks depending on the type of model and color, and this waiting period for electric cars lasts up to 6 months.
Honda Cars India marketing and sales director Yuichi Murata said supply-side challenges, including chip shortages worldwide, have affected production and shipments since last year, leading to longer waiting periods for customers. He said: “Unfortunately, this situation continues and we are doing our best to resolve this situation.”
He also said that the company has prioritized the production of best-selling models and varieties in order to meet the demand. He also said that the waiting time for company cars varies from 2 to 9.
Semiconductors are silicon chips that perform control and memory functions in products ranging from cars, computers, and cell phones to other electronic items.
The use of semiconductors in the automotive industry has increased globally in recent times, and new models are coming with more electronic features such as Bluetooth connectivity and driver assistance systems, navigation and hybrid-electric.