The conflict over Nexperia affects car manufacturers, as we reported yesterday. At that time, it was about the problems it causes at BMW. Car production in the United States is also at risk of being quickly impacted by the conflict surrounding the Nijmegen-based chipmaker Nexperia, warns the Alliance for Automotive Innovation (AAI). The industry association in Washington, which represents almost all major global car manufacturers such as General Motors, Ford, Volkswagen, and Toyota, is urgently a swift resolution to the conflict.
Car manufacturers and their suppliers were informed last week by chipmaker Nexperia that it could no longer guarantee the delivery of its chips due to a dispute between China and the Dutch government. The Dutch government recently placed Nexperia under trusteeship out of fear that its Chinese parent company Wingtech would withdraw important knowledge or activities from Europe. In response, China imposed an export ban on Nexperia, which has a large factory in the Chinese city of Dongguan.
Nexperia is a major manufacturer of relatively simple chips for cars or consumer electronics. Manufacturers often use the semiconductors for electronic control systems for many processes in cars, the so-called electronic control units (ECUs). “If the supply of auto chips is not quickly resumed, this will disrupt car production in the US and many other countries and have a spillover effect on other sectors,” warned AAI CEO John Bozzella.
The European interest group ACEA had previously warned that almost all European car manufacturers are affected by the conflict. According to the organization, the current stocks of Nexperia chips will be depleted within a few weeks. The ACEA described the situation as alarming and called for swift and pragmatic solutions from all countries involved.