Not sure why the Tesla Car thread was locked

[GloryDawg]

The shortages in chips for cars is not about outsourcing. It's about poor planning from the automakers. In Q2 of 2020 the auto manufacturers cancelled all of their orders with chip suppliers thinking they wouldn't sell any cars.

The chip manufacturers were happy to shift that production over to electronics that are higher margin. Now autos are in the back of the line. That would have happened if the fabs were here or anywhere.

Toyota has destroyed everyone else this year because after the tsunami in 2011, they started a plan to keep several months of critical components in inventory (like chips.) In Q2, Toyota topped all other manufacturers in US new vehicle sales. It was the first time since 1998 GM wasn't number 1.

If the auto manufacturers had planned better, it would still be tight, but hundreds of thousands of vehicles would not be sitting around near factories waiting for chips.

It's the same problem lumber faced, everyone likes to blame lumber mills for high prices and shortages, when in reality, 2020 lumber production in North America was 1% higher than 2019. It was the poor planning by lumberyards, dealers, and distributors that caused the lunacy we saw earlier this year.

https://techxplore.com/news/2021-08-chips-semiconductor-shortage.html

Build more plants in the United States.

 

[fishwater99]

Let me guess, your looking for a Land Cruiser? I am as well. I have Toyota dealerships calling me once a week asking me to trade in my 2018 Land Cruiser but they don't have anything to flip me into. I've looked everywhere. I knew the second they announced they were discontinuing the LC that this would happen.

Here is what a 2019 is going for $85K.

https://www.bouldertoyota.com/certi...sc1pWBd-_i7rrUbzHTSWoSA-oKILOa0qQ0uVFElmIJYTk

 

[Jeffreauxdawg]

https://techxplore.com/news/2021-08-chips-semiconductor-shortage.html

Build more plants in the United States.

Here's the quote from your own link. Auto manufacturers 17ed themselves. It wouldn't have mattered if the chips were made in the US or on Mars.

As automakers slashed production early in the pandemic, their chip suppliers turned to clients from other sectors—namely the makers of electronic goods in high demand due to the pandemic.

That has left car brands, from Volkswagen to Volvo, scrambling to get hold of semiconductors now that sales are revving up again.

Are you suggesting that if the semiconductors were from US companies (which a lot are...Nvidia, AMD, Texas Instruments, Intel, Micron, Qualcomm) then the companies would have been forced to sell to automakers when they changed their mind?

The chip shortage is bad across all industries, but you can't sell a used cellphone for as much as a new one. There are plenty of phones being made. The auto companies cancelled orders and the chip companies found new customers. That's capitalism Jack.

I'm all for bringing that manufacturing back to the US. To do it, you need massive investment in the infrastructure and a capable workforce. The US has a massive shortage of both.

US companies still represent 47% of global semiconductor sales.
View attachment 21374

China, Taiwan, S. Korea, and Singapore have spent 20 years pouring money into the semiconductor industry. Here's a breakdown

View attachment 21375

So the big US chip companies only have 2 options. Make their chips in other countries at competitive costs because of land, construction, and machinery incentives... Or lose market share by building them at higher costs in the US.

Either way, the car companies still 17ed themselves by cutting off there own supply. Now there is no capacity to let them back in.

 

[SheltonChoked]

We should. but it takes time.

And we should look into the reasons they were not built here already, and see any of those reasons have changed.

 

[SheltonChoked]

Lumber mills are like any other business. They are selling a commodity so they sell it to whomever will pay them the most for it - just like consumers will buy from whomever will sell it to them the cheapest. That’s what makes this such a great country.

Might also be why we don't have the chip fabs built here....