The auto industry globally has been plagued with crises in the past couple of years. It first started with the lockdown during the pandemic which saw most countries registers zero sales in atleast one month and then the subsequent hampering of production due to the semi-conductor chip shortage. The Indian auto market too has faced massive challenges and Mahindra in fact has said that it has witnessed a loss of production of 32,000 units across its portfolio in the second quarter because of the semi-conductor shortage. Addressing the media at the company's financial results, Anish Shah, MD and CEO Mahindra brought out these figures.
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There has been a strong demand for the Mahindra Thar in India
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However, the explanation of this loss of production because of the semi-conductor shortage was provided by Rajesh Jejurikar, Executive Director, Auto and Farm Sector, Mahindra. He said, "Q2 is probably the worst of the chip shortage that we have seen and the shortages that happened were on basic chips. It was impacting primarily the ECU units that would go into the engines and also our LCVs like the Supro and the Jeeto. And so, it was affecting our entire portfolio. It was a simple IC which costed $3 and that was made in Malaysia. The country went into COVID-19 lock down for 3 to 4 weeks, and that completely dried up the supply chain."
The deliveries of the XUV700 have begun in a phased manner
The production of newly launched cars like the Thar and the XUV700 too have been affected due to this. In fact, the company was gearing up to launch the Marazzo with an automatic gearbox, but that too has been delayed owing to the chip shortage which has subsequently hampered production. The company is now taking steps to address the issue by recalibrating its approach so as to help customers get deliveries of the cars they have purchased in a phased manner.
