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True, but I believe there is also a missing factor: When people wasn't able to get outta home, demand for cars plummeted. And whoever made ICs as for cars just

by eb0la 5y ago

True, but I believe there is also a missing factor: When people wasn't able to get outta home, demand for cars plummeted. And whoever made ICs as for cars just had the opportunity to fill the gap from automakers with more lucrative parts.

jasonwatkinspdx 5y ago
Ironically enough demand for cars went up during COVID. I can't tell you why, but I know it's a fact. Lack of supply is certainly a factor but I think there's probably more going on. Go check how insane the market is right now. It's nearly impossible to buy a new car, and used cars are selling at way above the notional blue book value.
- frutmonkey 5y ago
  Demand did go up, after the market adjusted to projections that with everyone in lock-down, demand for cars would go down. Demand for in home entertainment was projected to go up. Auto makers sold their capacity to people who were projected to use it in lock-down friendly ways. Once reality set in it was to late to get the capacity back.
- jcadam 5y ago
  We sold two cars and bought one new one. Remote work and a move to a rural area meant we had more cars than we needed, and that we needed to replace our city cars with something more rugged/utilitarian.
midjji 5y ago
One thing I heard from a guy working on chip for a big German car company was that they used to have a decades old contract with a major Taiwanese chip manufacturer which had extremely good terms for the Germans. In particular with terms to delivery times, and fees for late deliveries, and price. This deal had apparently been used as a framework for the purchase of not just the then used chips, but pretty much all latter ones too. In retrospect the deal seems to have been at the very least partially politically motivated by Taiwan, but the chip manufacturer could not cancel the framework agreement without significant penalties. There was however an option for the car manufacturer to cancel quite freely, and when the news of the pandemic hit, they did. It seems like no one in the department quite understood just how extremely good the conditions had become over the decades, and after they canceled it, and decided they wanted the same deal back... Well lets just say they are at the back of the line despite paying substantially more than they used too.

by eb0la 5y ago

jasonwatkinspdx 5y ago

Ironically enough demand for cars went up during COVID. I can't tell you why, but I know it's a fact. Lack of supply is certainly a factor but I think there's probably more going on. Go check how insane the market is right now. It's nearly impossible to buy a new car, and used cars are selling at way above the notional blue book value.

frutmonkey 5y ago
Demand did go up, after the market adjusted to projections that with everyone in lock-down, demand for cars would go down. Demand for in home entertainment was projected to go up. Auto makers sold their capacity to people who were projected to use it in lock-down friendly ways. Once reality set in it was to late to get the capacity back.
jcadam 5y ago
We sold two cars and bought one new one. Remote work and a move to a rural area meant we had more cars than we needed, and that we needed to replace our city cars with something more rugged/utilitarian.

midjji 5y ago

One thing I heard from a guy working on chip for a big German car company was that they used to have a decades old contract with a major Taiwanese chip manufacturer which had extremely good terms for the Germans. In particular with terms to delivery times, and fees for late deliveries, and price. This deal had apparently been used as a framework for the purchase of not just the then used chips, but pretty much all latter ones too. In retrospect the deal seems to have been at the very least partially politically motivated by Taiwan, but the chip manufacturer could not cancel the framework agreement without significant penalties. There was however an option for the car manufacturer to cancel quite freely, and when the news of the pandemic hit, they did. It seems like no one in the department quite understood just how extremely good the conditions had become over the decades, and after they canceled it, and decided they wanted the same deal back... Well lets just say they are at the back of the line despite paying substantially more than they used too.