The American car market is at its crazy best right now. People are lining up to buy cars and the demand has shot through the roof. After a year of shutdowns and low sales, the auto industry is finally getting back on track. So whether it is new car dealerships, or used car dealerships, or even a car selling website, all of them have reported record traffic of buyers in the past few months.
While the demand and recovery may seem great, the auto industry however is plagued by shortages; the biggest one of them being that of microchips. The auto industry world over has been hit by the shortage of microchips and semiconductors, so much so that automakers in the USA had to stop production and even delete some crucial features from their cars.
Recently, GM announced that some of its full-size SUVs will not be getting the electronic power steering lock feature due to the microchip shortage. The 2021 Cadillac Escalade, 2021 GMC Yukon, 2021 Chevrolet Tahoe, and the 2021 Chevrolet Suburban will not be getting the electronic power steering lock.
All GM full-size SUVs manufactured on or after July 5 2021 won’t be getting this feature. Moreover, GM has stated that the feature won’t be coming back to the vehicles at least for the 2021 model year. All such SUVs without the electronic steering lock feature will be tagged with an RPO code R7N. These vehicles will be entitled to a $50 MSRP credit.
The auto industry is hit with an acute shortage of semiconductors and microchips. Semiconductors and microchips use silicon and silicon is also an essential element required for manufacturing vaccine vials. With vaccine production ramped up all over the world, major silicon supply has been diverted to vaccine vial manufacturing hubs and thus the electronics and the auto industry have taken a hit.
Moreover, frequent shutdowns and lockdowns have disrupted the supply chains and this has further led to even severe shortages. On top of this, the Texas winter storm last year halted production at major chip manufacturers and suppliers like Samsung, NXP, and Infineon. All of these suppliers were located in Austin and all of them had to stop production abruptly credit to the blackouts, roadblocks, and shutdowns caused due to the storm. Fuelling the chip shortage further was the Suez Canal blockage in March. The blockage delayed the chip supplies coming in from Europe and Asia.
General Motors has also stated that they had about 20,000 vehicles lying idle in their plants waiting for electronic items to fit in. These vehicles got out of the plant only recently in June 2021. GM has had even more dramatic steps in the past to tackle the ongoing chip shortage.
In the first week of June 2021, GM announced that they would be deleting the automatic engine start/stop feature from some of its SUVs and pickup trucks. The 2021 Chevy Silverado, 2021 GMC Sierra 1500, 2021 Chevy Tahoe and Suburban, 2021 GMC Yukon and the 2021 Cadillac Escalade will all no longer be getting the automatic engine start/stop function. All GM models equipped with the naturally aspirated 5.3-liter, V8 L84 unit, and the 6.2 liter V8 L87 unit mated with the 10-speed automatic gearbox will no longer have the start/stop feature. On the other hand, these GM models equipped with the 3.0-liter, 6 cylinder LM2 Duramax turbo-diesel units will continue to get the auto engine start/stop function.
Also, GM has axed cylinder deactivation technology from the Silverado and Sierra trucks. The 5.3-liter V8 engine offered with both these trucks used to come equipped with a cylinder deactivation feature where the car’s computer used to shut down two or four cylinders of the engine to enhance fuel economy. However, with the shortage of chips kicking in GM has decided to cancel this feature as well and that has lowered the EPA ratings of the trucks. GM has also stripped the trucks of HD radio and you no longer get HD radio with these trucks.
And it isn’t just GM who’s stripping their vehicles of features. Automakers all over the world have taken such dramatic steps to cope up with the shortages. In Europe Peugeot has deleted the digital instrument cluster from some of its models while Nissan has stopped offering the large gauge display on some of its models. RAM too has cut down on features like blind-spot monitoring and intelligent rear-view mirror with its 1500 pickup trucks. Even luxury automakers had to make cuts on features. Mercedes-Benz and BMW both deleted a few safety and driver assistance features that they used to offer as options with some of their models in the Australian market. These driver assistance and safety packages can no longer be availed.
It will certainly take some time for chip supplies to get back on track. Speeding up microchip production isn’t a simple task and hence cars manufactured in 2021 will not get all the features as per the original launch specifications. Moreover, if you’re planning to buy a top-spec, fully-loaded trim level, you most probably will have to face long waiting periods and even have to pay extra to get all the features and equipment. Hence, if you’re in the market thinking of buying a new car, make sure you specify your purchase properly and buy only what you need. That will just help you cut costs and you won’t have to face long waiting periods.
