The semiconductor supply crisis that caused chaos throughout most of the car industry during 2021 will ease this year helping global sales to climb by six percent according to industry watchers.
A rise like that would boost sales to 85 million, with the increase spread evenly throughout different regions of the globe, Automotive News reports. The prediction comes from analyst firm LMC Automotive, which reckons European sales will rise 7 percent to 17.8 million units, while American figures will grow 6 percent to 18.7 million, and sales in China will swell 5 percent to 26.6 million.
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But LMC’s Pete Kelly cautioned that the recovery wouldn’t get into full swing until at least the third quarter of the year, suggesting that European automakers will continue to struggle to build enough cars to satisfy customer demand through the entire first half of the year and well into the second.
“This year we won’t escape the chip shortage again, but the volume [of disruptions] looks like it will be in the range of half of what it was last year,” Automotive News reports Kelly saying. LMC also estimated that the kind of full production stoppages due to chip supply issues that became normal last year wouldn’t happen beyond the second quarter of 2022.
Kelly also had good news for buyers who would rather buy from a dealer’s lot today than wait for a build slot two months away. He predicted that inventory levels in the U.S. market will improve, or at least stabilize, in 2022 after crashing to just 24 days of supply during certain months of last year.
American automakers and consumers were forced to adapt to a different style of retailing that focused on bespoke orders rather than buying from stock, something brands like Dodge cleverly managed by offering buyers more personalisation options.