Ford is interrupting production of F-150s at its Dearborn, Michigan plant from Friday to Sunday, before restarting again on Monday, while Chrysler is shutting down the minivan production for four whole weeks at its plant in Windsor, Canada, both ostensibly because of the global chip shortage. Expect more chaos.
As Raph noted this morning, the F-150 is Ford’s largest dairy cow. Without the F-150, Ford is just a mediocre SUV company that also sells Mustangs. Pacifica is of much less importance to Stellantis, like Ford sold 787,422 F-series trucks last year, while Chrysler sold 93,802 Pacificas.
But what it really shows is that this shortage of chips is apparently equal to opportunity, probably to the great chagrin of automakers, who may have thought at some point that the worst of the pandemic was behind them.
Automotive News reported more on Friday about the mess in Canada, where a union said the four-week minivan production shutdown would start on March 29:
General Motors Canada confirmed on Wednesday that its CAMI plant in Ingersoll, Ontario, will remain inactive until at least mid-April. The Chevrolet Equinox is mounted there.
The Ford plant in Oakville, Ontario, is partially assembling Ford Edge vehicles and storing them in batches until the necessary microchips arrive to complete them.
Windsor Star reported on Friday that Ford’s Essex engine plant in Windsor, Ontario, will be shut down on April 16.
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The factory produces engines for the F-Series pickup, Mustang and E-Series commercial vans, and on Friday Ford suspended production of the F-150 for three days at a plant in Michigan.
In the meantime, Honda Canada would only say that its Alliston, Ont., Factory, which builds the Civic, has been affected.
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I kind of assumed, when it all started, that automakers would keep the flow of their most profitable products and cut off the supply of semiconductors for other less profitable products, but if the chip shortage is affecting the production of cars like the Chevy Equinox and Ford Edge, on top of the F-150, who are cutting the bone.
Still, according to a Cox Automotive report on Wednesday, production stops may not have much effect in the short term for consumers, as stocks of many cars and some trucks have remained healthy enough. The F-150, for example, has a 65-day inventory stock, or just slightly less than the industry average of 71, while the Ram 1500 Classic also affected by chip shortages, has a supply for 136 days. In a month or two, we will look at the actual damage.