Chip shortage on sales could ease slightly in 2022

Toyota Motor North America has a more optimistic outlook than the forecasting firms.

Jack Hollis, senior vice president of auto operations, said he expected light vehicle sales “in the order of $ 16 million.”

“In terms of semiconductor supply, we expect the challenges to continue throughout the first quarter of [2022], but the supply is improving day by day, “he said.” When it comes to inventory, we will see a steady increase throughout the year. However, we don’t think we’ll see 100,000 vehicles on the ground in 2022. ”

Toyota and Lexus started December – historically one of their biggest selling months of the year – with 116,638 vehicles either at dealerships or at the port awaiting shipment.

That was an 18-day supply of light trucks and a 20-day supply of cars, and about a third of what they had in stock a year earlier.

Randall Reed, CEO of eight World Class Automotive Group stores in Texas, which has Ford and Lincoln franchises, expects more inventory in the spring, but not pre-crisis amounts.

“We’re never going to go back to the inventory levels we used to stock, and I’m happy for that,” Reed said. “I’d much rather have a smaller daily supply and keep demand high and discounts low. It’s good for the manufacturer, and it’s good for us.”

Automakers could adapt to limited chip supplies, said Mark Fulthorpe, executive director of global light-duty vehicle production forecast at IHS Markit. Production has started to stabilize globally in recent months and automakers have experienced less unplanned downtime, he said.

“There’s probably a new normal emerging out there that has a more limited semiconductor supply built into OEM planning in a way that probably wasn’t possible earlier in the year.” , said Fulthorpe during a presentation on December 16 journalists and clients of IHS.