Production of passenger cars in the Czech Republic in July and August fell by 39 percent year on year to 112,481 vehicles due to a lack of chips. In eight months, the carmakers produced 775,496 cars, which is 12.6 percent more than last year, but compared to the pre-crisis year of 2019, this means a loss of 17.7 percent. Due to the lack of semiconductors, car production will be about 140,000 cars lower this year. The Association of the Automotive Industry announced it today.
Škoda Auto and Toyota have extended traditional summer outages due to missing semiconductors. Skoda produced 42 percent fewer cars in the summer than last year. In eight months, production increased by 7.9 percent to 486,423 vehicles. In Toyota, production fell 37 percent in July and stopped in August. However, total production rose 5.8 percent to 106,673 cars. At the Hyundai brand, holiday production was roughly at last year’s level. From January to the end of August, it increased production by 33.1 percent to 182,400 cars.
“The situation in the automotive industry is not improving, on the contrary. In Malaysia, production at key chip suppliers has been temporarily suspended due to measures against the spread of coronavirus. We estimate that due to the lack of chips, approximately 140,000 vehicles will not be produced in the Czech Republic that customers would otherwise be interested in, “said Zdeněk Petzl, the association’s executive director.
At the same time, according to the association, there is a clear trend of increasing demand for electric vehicles, especially in export markets. Overall, the number of electric cars and plug-in hybrids produced exceeded 10%, increasing by 0.9 percentage points to 10.5 percent compared to the results from the first half of the year. In August, every fifth vehicle manufactured in the Czech Republic was electrified. 46,139 battery electric cars and 34,920 plug-in hybrids were produced.
The problem with the lack of chips could persist until the second half of next year, according to the leading partner for the automotive industry of the consulting company EY Petr Knap, although in the spring it was expected that it would be resolved by the end of this year. “The reduction in car production will also be reflected in faster price growth due to persistently high demand. While it used to grow at a rate of two to three percent a year, it can now be around ten percent,” he said. they practically stopped giving discounts.
Bus production remained almost unchanged year on year. 2984 vehicles were produced, ie 25 buses less. Traditionally, the largest manufacturer is the Iveco CR in Vysoké Mýto. From January to August, the company produced 2,738 buses, ie 0.9 percent more year-on-year, SOR Libchavy produced 233 buses, of which more than a fifth (48 units) were fully electric.
Jawa Moto produced 736 motorcycles this year, which is 128 percent more than in the same period last year.
