Quote:
Originally Posted by claykin
I respect a lot of your opinions, but this one I disagree with. Competition in auto manufacturing is fierce, as you well know. The current situation has nearly every manufacturer digging into ways to reduce their dependency on others and reduce overall risk. No way BMW is planning to decontent their future models. I believe they'll be more vigilent in choosing part/component suppliers as well as remodeling the JIT inventory method of building cars.
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I agree that the space is extremely competitive and I also agree that BMW wouldn't (and I don't think other manufacturers are rushing to either) decontent their vehicles without valid reasons. But the recent deals between Ford and Global Foundries and GM linking up with Qualcomm and NXP shows that the chip situation won't be returning to the old "normal" in short order. And as we start to see things return back manufacturers will have much more vertical integration -- at least with regards to semiconductors.
We're going to see the availability of chips continue to be volatile. As a result, we'll see automakers continuing to prioritize chips to vehicles that they consider to be higher margin and for them to reduce the chip needs of cars that are lower margin. What that looks like will vary across manufacturers, segments, and models.
Even now the loss of touchscreens on BMWs and the loss of HD radio are pretty visible and sad losses, but there may be more under the hood that makers don't need to disclose to us directly...