Since the beginning of last year (2020), the haze of chip shortage has enveloped all walks of life, such as our daily electronic products and intelligent vehicles, which have been greatly constrained by development. According to the prediction of China Automobile Association, the supply and demand of automobile chips will enter a balance stage by the third quarter of this year, but the reality is always cruel.

Recently, Xu Daquan, vice president of Bosch China, wrote in the circle of friends, “I just received a notice that the Malaysian Muar factory of a semiconductor chip supplier closed down a few weeks ago due to the new epidemic. Last night, the local government closed some production lines until August 21. Bosch ESP/IPB, VCU, TCU and other chips will be directly affected. It is expected that the power supply will be basically cut off in August. We are deeply sorry and helpless for the great impact on the automotive industry of the motherland! ”

Many passenger pickup trucks in China rely on Bosch’s chip supply. The domestic pickup truck market will be involved in this crisis“ Chips are like a person’s brain. At least they can survive without limbs, but people don’t exist without a brain. ” According to the data released by the Ministry of industry and information technology, by the end of 2019, China’s chip self-sufficiency rate was less than 30%, especially for high-end chips, the self-sufficiency rate was only 5%. China needs to spend huge funds to buy chips from outsourcing every year.

For example, in China’s pickup truck manufacturing industry, the products are relatively traditional. The chip it needs is not a high-end processing device, but a micro controller. This controller can control many devices in the car, such as engine, air conditioner, wiper, etc. a car may need hundreds of such controller elements from the beginning to the completion of final assembly. In addition to this traditional automobile chip, those high-end intelligent automobile products focusing on Intelligent cockpit and automatic driving rely on higher chip levels and more stringent technical requirements.

Not only is there a core shortage crisis in China, but also the chip crisis in overseas automobile markets such as Germany continues. Japan’s Mazda, Subaru, Nissan and Mitsubishi have successively announced production cuts, and the production of German Volkswagen has exceeded 90000 vehicles. Before the epidemic, many pickup truck manufacturers in China produced more than sold. In a sense, the production capacity crisis gave manufacturers an opportunity to sell inventory. However, this time line is too long, and pickup truck enterprises are under increasing pressure. I hope the crisis can be overcome as soon as possible and the market will resume operation.