Car industry may need deals with chipmakers to counter shortage

Automakers should consider strategic partnerships with chipmakers to improve how they source semiconductors as their use in cars balloons, Roland Berger said.

A premium electric vehicle with semi-autonomous driving capabilities will pack chips worth roughly $7,000 by 2025, up from about $3,000 for a combustion-engine car in 2019, the consultancy said in a study released Tuesday.

Competition from consumer-electronics companies that buy far more semiconductors will continue to test auto manufacturers’ supply-chain management capabilities, it said.

“We expect the current chip shortage to last beyond 2021 given the current supply and demand imbalance and the lead time to increase capacity," Roland Berger said. Carmakers should overhaul relationships with suppliers and weigh strategic partnerships including “equity relations."

The auto industry has struggled to source chips as semiconductor makers have allocated more capacity to consumer products after the pandemic prompted a surge in orders for smartphones, TVs and computers.

The shortage and a winter storm that devastated Texas in February probably cost carmakers including Volkswagen AG and General Motors Co. production of about 1.3 million vehicles in the first quarter, IHS Markit said last month.