Volvo and Nissan plants suspend car production due to chip shortage
The main Volvo plant in Sweden (Gothenburg) and the Nissan site in the United States (Tennessee) will suspend production of cars due to a lack of electronic chips. The first will go to idle tonight, and the second will do it next Monday, August 16.
In Gothenburg, Sweden, several Volvo models are produced at once, including the V90 station wagons, as well as the XC60 and XC90 crossovers. In the US, Nissan produces Infiniti crossovers and models of its flagship brand for American consumers.
"Production at Volvo Torslanda will be suspended from this evening due to material shortages related to semiconductor problems," said Volvo.
Downtime will depend on the supply situation. Volvo plans to return to work in a week, and the Nissan plant is likely to be idle for two weeks - until early September.
Recall that the shortage of chips, due to which a number of large automakers are forced to cut production volumes and even "cut" the complete set of their cars, is associated with a disrupted supply cycle due to the pandemic.
This problem emerged back in 2020, when the car market plummeted in the second quarter and automakers reduced their semiconductor orders to a minimum. Then demand began to recover, the volume of orders for chips increased, but their manufacturers could not immediately return to their previous production volumes (since they reduced orders for raw materials), and the market naturally faced a shortage.