Here's how Tata Motors is planning to bulldoze past chip shortage crisis

Tata Motors has planned various measures to deal with the global semiconductor shortage that has affected its production. The measures include making changes in its product configurations and buying chips directly from stockists, PTI reported. The carmaker is also looking to use different kinds of chips in components where the supply is most affected.

The company expects the supply situation to remain challenging in the ongoing quarter and expects that some improvement could come only in the second half of the fiscal. "We are definitely impacted because of uncertainty of supplies but so far we have been able to manage somehow," Tata Motors' President -Passenger Vehicles Business Unit, Shailesh Chandra told PTI.

He added that by looking at alternate semiconductors, the company is trying to see if a more standard chip can be used in certain components. It is also looking at trim mix so that it does not lose out on sales due to impact on production.

Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover is also going through the issue of chip shortage. The car maker currently has about 1,10,000 global retail orders pending. The British brand expects semiconductor supply shortages in the July-September quarter to be much more than in the first quarter that can result in its wholesale volumes to be about 50 per cent lower than planned.

The use of semiconductors has gone up in the automobile industry in recent times as new models are equipped with electronic features such as bluetooth connectivity, driver-assist system, navigation and hybrid-electric systems.

Various other car makers are dealing with semiconductor shortage that has hit their production volumes including Hyundai India that has been managing the situation by closely collaborating with its suppliers. "Our production is very flexible so that we can adjust as per the situation...we have been affected but not that much," the company's MD and CEO S S Kim had said.

(with inputs from PTI)