The number of vehicles canceled from automaker production schedules worldwide due to the microchip shortage has surged past 2 million, according to the latest estimate by AutoForecast Solutions. Despite hopeful predictions around the industry, automakers continue prioritizing their available chips for high-end, high-margin models instead of entry-level vehicles.
About 234,200 vehicles were added to AFS’ year-to-date tally last week, bringing the total to 2.23 million units lost due to the microchip crisis.
Most of that surge in schedule cuts came from North American assembly plants, where AFS estimated an additional 205,200 cuts.
Sam Fiorani, AFS vice president of global vehicle forecasting, said the new estimate contains revisions to previous forecasts of production numbers for this year.
An additional 25,200 vehicles were axed from production plans in South America, while Asian plants outside of China cut 4,200 more units. No further cuts were reported in China, the Middle East or Africa.
AFS revised its year-to-date estimate of European plant losses downward by about 500 units from the previous week.