Ford will deliver "semi-finished cars": add chips after 1 year.

Ford will deliver "semi-finished cars": add chips after 1 year.

Ford Motor Company will deliver "semi-finished cars": add chips after 1 year. Since the epidemic, the shortage of chips has become the number one problem of major automobile factories. This round of chip shortage is mainly due to the supply chain interruption caused by global capacity constraints and epidemic situation. Ford will deliver the "semi-finished car": the chip will be refilled after 1 year.

Ford Motor Company will deliver the "semi-finished car": 1 year later, it will carry the chip 1 March. According to foreign media reports, on Sunday, local time in the United States, Ford announced that it would sell and ship cars without chips that drive unsafe functions. But the carmaker promised to send the chip to the dealer one year after the car was sold and help install it on the customer's car.

It is reported that Ford has not released the model of the affected vehicles, nor has it stated which functions will be unavailable. However, it is reported that the missing chips, including Ford Explorer, are used for rear air conditioning and heating control. However, heating and air conditioning can still be controlled from the front seats, and customers who choose to buy cars without rear control will get preferential prices.

A Ford spokesperson said that the company did this to deliver the new Explorer car to customers faster, and this change was only temporary. Initially, Ford planned to ship some manufactured and driverless cars to dealers. But now, even without chips, these cars can be driven and sold.

Ford's decision is to transfer the crowded car inventory in its factory. In February of this year, hundreds of new Ford Mustangs were found idle in the parking lot near the company's Michigan assembly plant. All these cars are considered undeliverable because they are not equipped with chips.

Like other companies, Ford has been trying to cope with the limitations caused by the global chip shortage. In 20021year, the shortage of chips forced automakers to cut the production of the popular Ford F- 150. After that, Ford began to allow customers to choose to buy "cut-off" pickup trucks, which did not have the "automatic start-stop" function. In return, Ford offered a $50 discount to the affected car owners.

It is also reported that in 200211,both GM and Ford announced that they had reached an agreement with the chip manufacturer GlobalFoundries to alleviate the chip shortage. Due to the global chip shortage, other automakers have to make adjustments. General Motors has abandoned chips that manage functions such as wireless charging, fuel management module and high-definition radio.

As for Tesla, many models sold by the company don't have USB interfaces, but they will be replenished in the future. Even luxury models are not immune to the shortage of chips. Cadillac canceled the hands-free driving function in the 2022 Escalade, while BMW began to ship some cars without touch screens.

The global shortage of chips has made people see the current situation of American manufacturing industry, and many chip manufacturing businesses have moved abroad. It is reported that Intel and Samsung hope to take advantage of the rising demand for chips to regain the leading position of the United States in the fields of electronic products and automobile manufacturing.

Earlier this year, Intel said it would invest $20 billion to build two chip manufacturing plants near Columbus, Ohio. More importantly, these new sites can accommodate up to eight Intel processing plants, and the total cost of the whole project will exceed $654.38+000 billion.

Al Thompson, head of US government relations at Intel, said that they did not want to create a situation in which the United States, which created the semiconductor industry and Silicon Valley, would rely on other countries for product manufacturing.

The US Congress is studying a bill that will provide chip makers with subsidies of up to $52 billion. The EU also adopted a plan to provide 17 1 billion dollars for European chip projects.

As for Asian manufacturers, they are also trying to increase the output of chips. In June this year, 5438+ 10, TSMC said that it would invest 40 billion US dollars to build new chip manufacturing plants and equipment this year.

In February this year, Ford reduced the car production in its North American factory. In 20021year, Ford was forced to close the factory due to the shortage of chips.

Ford Motor Company will deliver the "semi-finished car": the chip will be refilled after 1 year. Ford Motor Company spokesman Deep said on Saturday (March 12) that in the absence of some non-critical chips, Ford will start to sell and transport the Ford Explorer series cars.

This part of the chip is mainly used to provide power for the control of the air conditioning and heating system after the car. Deep said that the heating system and air conditioning system can still be controlled through the front seats.

Of course, consumers who buy this "semi-finished" car will also get preferential prices, but the specific plan is still under discussion.

The shortage of chips has not been alleviated.

Since the epidemic, the shortage of chips has become the number one problem of major automobile factories. Musk once said: "Grab a chip, just like grabbing toilet paper."

This round of chip shortage is mainly due to global production capacity constraints and supply chain disruption caused by the epidemic. Experts predict that it will be alleviated in 2022 or 2023.

However, in the third month of 2022, the raw material crisis triggered by the Russian-Ukrainian incident cast a new shadow on the chip.

As the world's major neon supplier, Ukraine's major neon supplier was forced to close due to geopolitics. Ingas and Cryoin, two major suppliers in Ukraine, supply 45% to 54% of the world's major semiconductor light source materials.

Neon was originally one of the by-products of Russian steel manufacturing. It was transported to Ukraine for industrial purification, and then supplied as a key raw material for semiconductors to the semiconductor manufacturing markets in Chinese mainland, Taiwan Province Province, South Korea and Chinese mainland.

However, this chain has been cut off by the Russian-Ukrainian incident. According to European and American media reports, the inventory and supply of key gases for semiconductors, including neon, can't meet the current demand, which will further aggravate the global chip shortage.

From production reduction to semi-finished products

AutoForecast Solutions(ASF), a research company, tracks the global car sales under the chip shortage. As of February 27th, 2022, the global market has reduced production by about 643,654,38+0,000 vehicles this year. The agency also predicts that due to the shortage of chips, the global market will reduce production by 6,543,800+0,000 vehicles this year to 6,543,800+0,885 vehicles.

According to the data of European Automobile Manufacturers Association, the number of new car registrations in Europe this year is still 20% lower than that in 20 19.

In the case of chip shortage, major automobile factories can only continue to reduce production. This year alone, the Ford Kentucky truck factory reduced production by 23,600 vehicles, and the Toyota Woodstock factory and Georgetown factory reduced production by 1.62 million vehicles and 1.58 million vehicles respectively.

Earlier, Toyota also said that it would reduce domestic production by 20% in the three months from April this year to ease the pressure caused by the shortage of chips and other parts.

Cutting production is nothing new. In 20021year, the global market has bid farewell to/kloc-0.02 million new cars just because of production reduction. By 2022, automobile factories began to try new ways to deal with it.

In August last year, Ford chose to cancel the automatic start-stop function on its popular F 150 pickup truck. If consumers choose to buy F 150 without this function, Ford will provide a credit of $50 in return.

GM abandoned the chips that manage the functions of wireless charging, fuel module and high-definition radio. Coincidentally, Tesla also chose to sell cars without USB interface, but kept the installation program for future supplementary installation.

In addition, Cadillac canceled the hands-free driving function of the 2022 new car, while BMW gave up the touch screen function.

The shortage of chips has begun to make the automobile factory return to its nature and think about the secret of "breaking up".

The pressure of financial report forced the birth of "semi-finished products"

Ford's broken arm is also largely to make its financial report in the first quarter less ugly.

But there are only two weeks left in the first quarter, and there is not much time left for Ford.

Fiorani, ASF's global car forecasting expert, explained late on Saturday: "Any car that enters the hands of dealers will improve its performance. They are doing everything possible to increase sales in the first quarter. "

In financial statements, reflecting the cars produced in inventory or sales will have a great impact on performance. As long as the car is delivered to the dealer, there will be a lot of transactions on Ford's books, which may make its first quarter financial report "turn a profit".

This will be an important link for Ford to stabilize investor confidence.

Of course, other car companies have precedents. GM relies on omitting the seat heating function, and Nissan saves its performance by canceling the automatic navigation function to deliver the car in the case of chip shortage.

Feola also said: "Ford is definitely trying to improve their (performance) figures or prepare for possible difficulties in the second quarter."

Ford will deliver the "semi-finished car": the chip will be refilled after 1 year. Recently, the turbulent international situation has once again hit the already tight global supply of automobile chips, and many automobile companies have to reduce or suspend the production of their new cars because of the shortage of chips. However, Ford, an American automobile manufacturer, has introduced a rather helpless method: it announced that it will sell and ship cars without chips that drive unsafe functions, and promised to supplement the missing chips for users one year later.

Ford explorer

According to foreign media reports, Ford recently announced this policy. Although Ford did not disclose the model of the affected vehicle in the statement, it did not explain which functions would not be available. However, it is reported that the affected models include Ford Explorer, and the missing chips are used for rear air conditioning and heating control. However, heating and air conditioning can still be controlled from the front seats, and customers who choose to buy cars without rear control will get preferential prices.

Ford said in the announcement that the purpose of this move is to deliver the new Explorer car to customers faster. On the one hand, many customers who ordered new cars before have been unable to receive the ordered vehicles because of the lack of vehicle chips.

Correspondingly, Ford's new car can't be delivered because of the lack of some chips, and it is almost full of warehouses where it stores vehicles. This move is considered to solve the needs of both parties at the same time, because the lack of these chips will not affect the driving safety of the vehicle, but will only affect some additional functions of the vehicle.

Ford is not the only car company that chooses to deliver reduced models because of the shortage of supply chain. Tesla has delivered many models without USB interface before, while Cadillac canceled the hands-free driving function on the 2022 Escalade, and BMW began to ship some cars without touch screens. It seems that the shortage of chips and supply has really brought a big impact to the global automobile market.