Supply chain issues
700,000 fewer cars from Germany
May 1, 2022 at 1:16 p.m
The supply chain problems that the automakers have been struggling with for months are also reflected in the production figures. A data collection shows that significantly fewer vehicles roll off the assembly line in Germany. To offset the financial impact, some automakers are setting clear priorities.
Due to uncertain supply chains, German manufacturers will be able to produce around 700,000 fewer cars than planned this year. This is reported by the industry and business newspaper “Automobilwoche”, citing documents from the data service provider IHS Markit, which it has exclusively at its disposal. The plans from the beginning of the year were compared with the current data in April.
The VW brand is particularly affected, losing over half a million units this year. The VW Group is focusing on its premium brands, which bring more margin. Production at Porsche is even increasing, at Audi it is only going down slightly. This is to the detriment of the VW brand, which claims to have received more than 500,000 orders. “We are doing everything we can to stabilize production over the course of the year, despite existing bottlenecks in supplier parts, in order to be able to deliver customer vehicles as quickly as possible,” said a VW spokesman for “Automobilwoche”. However, all forecasts are subject to further restrictions in the supply chain due to the war in Ukraine and the corona lockdown in China.
BMW and Mercedes are also affected
But Mercedes and BMW were also missing 80,000 and 100,000 vehicles respectively at the end of the year. Since Mercedes currently quotes an average price of 70,500 euros for its cars, this means a loss of sales of 5.6 billion euros for this car manufacturer alone, according to the trade journal.
It was only on Friday that Mercedes-Benz announced at its Annual General Meeting that production had so far hardly been affected by disruptions in the supply chains caused by the Ukraine war. In cooperation with the suppliers, Mercedes tries to avoid failures, such as cable harnesses from the Ukraine, explained CEO Ola Källenius. “Currently, most of our plants around the world are running without restrictions.” The raw material supply chains are also currently stable. For example, the carmaker obtained palladium from Russia, but can cover almost all of its needs from other sources. Mercedes-Benz is still struggling with the lack of semiconductors. The problem that arose with the corona pandemic will continue into the coming year.