Car Industry: ditching - or not ditching - fossile fuel is not the only issue that poses challenges: Mazda to suspend production in July due to shortage of chips

[hemanthaa@mail.com + 64]

The obsession that has been induced upon the car industry in order to go green may have inadvertently contributed to ignoring the other dormant, potential challenges. The severe shortage of chips is one of them.

Mazda, the Japanese car giant, annouced yesterday that they had been forced to suspend the production in July due to lack of chips; it's pretty unprecedented, isn't it?

Here is the story:

[Ward Smith + 6,615]

The problem is auto companies are buying old chips with large feature sizes, while the foundries have moved on. This article discusses it

[Dan Clemmensen + 1,011]

On 6/24/2021 at 11:04 AM, Ward Smith said:

The problem is auto companies are buying old chips with large feature sizes, while the foundries have moved on. This article discusses it

Yep. but the article you cite also points out that the auto industry abruptly canceled a lot of orders at the beginning of the pandemic, in what was basically a "screw you" to the chip makers. The chip makers are now being just as loyal to the auto makers as the auto makers were to them.

Chip makers usually build a new fab about once every two years to introduce the newest technology "node". Each fab then runs to produce that "node" until that node is no longer profitable or the fab wears out. I speculate that the chip makers shut down some older fabs when the orders were cancelled, and restarting them makes no economic sense. NOTE: this speculation is based on my casual interest in the industry over many years, and not on any actual recent knowledge.

[RichieRich216 + 454]

All of this and much more could have and should have been avoided if China did not unleash a Biological Attack on the World!

They should be held accountable!