While Tesla Post records Q3 sales, the lack of a chip hurts the rest of the auto industry
How bad is the shortage of global semiconductor chips? Choose the case you want to endure. Because everyone bought many Peloton bikes and Nintendo switches last year when they were stuck inside – and automakers have no components to keep up with demand – rental cars are available, Toyota cut its production forecast for the coming months by 40 percent and General Motors’ worst sales since 185. The year is on its way. As the figures for Q3 2021 come out, there is a glowing light in the dark, and that is Tesla.
Now the Austin-based Texas-based automaker (which is an unusual thing to see on a Tesla press release) said this weekend that it produced 237,823 vehicles in the last quarter and delivered 241,300 of them. According to The Verge, there were more than 100,000 cars in the same quarter last year, and Tesla’s best-selling quarter so far. In fact, GM sold only twice that number in Q3 and is a big company.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk says his company has been able to avoid headaches for other automakers by sourcing chips from a wide range of (so far, still) suppliers, and his team rewriting flyer codes. As he said on his earnings call this summer: “It’s not just a matter of chip swapping; You will have to rewrite the software. “And it would be a matter of pride to assume that Tesla is permanently free of the problem that hinders the rest of the business,” Musk said. And Ford CEO Jim Farley told The Drive this summer that he thinks we’ve gone through the worst phase of this supply chain crisis and that “chip conditions are improving.”
We’ll find out on Monday whether Farley was right, because that’s when Ford will release its Q3 sales figures. But the rest of the auto industry didn’t have a great story to tell. According to Automotive News, ultra-popular Subaru reported a 30 percent drop in sales in September, Volkswagen and Audi closed at eight and 14 percent, Hyundai fell slightly year-on-year and Nissan 10 fell 3 percent, mainly due to its volume-selling rogue. No crossover supply.
