Volkswagen says chip crisis won’t ease until second half of 2022

What we've seen over the past few months with rising car prices and even worse customer experiences at dealerships will continue even when the chip shortage is over. From the article:

When semiconductor shortages eventually ease, Volkswagen plans to keep fewer cars on dealer lots, because it has proved to be more profitable for manufacturers and dealers, Keogh said.

“Going back to the days of having 100 to 120 days’ supply is not going to happen,” he said. “Now, people have 30 to 40 days’ supply and it’s working quite fine. Somewhere in that 40- to 50-day camp would be a beautiful thing.”

I guess many manufacturers are trying to talk the crisis down to keep their share price high but there are few reasons to think this will get better any time soon. The additional demands from lock-down are remaining with many people still working from home and it takes years and obscene amounts of money to build new plants.

People in the industry allowed this to happen, it should have been an obvious risk for at least 10 years but I guess no-one wants to bankroll the extra capacity.