Ingersoll, Ontario — General Motors became the latest victim to get hit by the global shortage of semiconductor chips as the U.S. automaker said Wednesday; it will take down production next week at four assembly plants–with Ingersoll being the first.
GM stated it will cut production entirely next week at plants in Ingersoll, Ontario; Fairfax, Kansa; and San Luis Potosi, Mexico. It will run its Bupyeong 2 plant in South Korea at half capacity, next week as well.
“Despite our mitigation efforts, the semiconductor shortage will impact GM production in 2021,” GM spokesman David Barnas said in a statement.
“Semiconductor supply for the global auto industry remains very fluid,” he added. “Our supply chain organization is working closely with our supply base to find solutions for our suppliers’ semiconductor requirements and to mitigate impacts on GM.”
GM has not disclosed how much volume it would lose or which supplier is affected by the chip shortage but said the focus has been on keeping production running at plants building the highest-profit vehicles, which are the full-size pickup trucks and SUVs as well as the Chevrolet Corvette sports car.
GM said it intends to make up as much lost production as possible. AutoForecast Solutions, which tracks production, estimated GM’s combined lost volume would total almost 10, 000 vehicles next week.
Affected GM vehicles include the Chevrolet Malibu sedan, Cadillac XT4 SUV, Chevy Equinox, Trax, and GMC Terrain SUVs and the Buick Encore small crossover vehicle. The chip shortage has led several automakers, including Volkswagen, Ford, Subaru, Toyota, Nissan, and Stellantis, to cut vehicle production.
AutoForecast Solutions said that announced their production loss globally, due to the shortage which has totalled 564,000 vehicles and has estimated the total impact in 2021 could be 964,000 vehicles.
