Supply chain issues caused by COVID-19 continue to delay Motability Scheme orders
The global car market is currently facing a number of challenges, all of which are leading to supply issues, delivery delays and a shortage of many new makes and models, which is affecting Motability Scheme orders.
According to Motability, the main issue affecting new car supply is a global shortage of semiconductors, or ‘chips’, which feature in most electrical items from washing machines and home computers, to TVs and new cars.
Each new car features around 1,500 of these chips, which act as the ‘brain’ of the vehicle, but high demand for electrical items during the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a shortage of semiconductors. This shortage is expected to continue well into 2023.
On top of this, Motability states, factories across the world continue to be affected by staff shortages due to COVID-19 isolation requirements and wider supply chain problems caused by the pandemic.
The supply chain issues can often mean that vehicles in production are unable to be completed due to delayed parts, leading to further delays and changing delivery dates. In many cases, cars are taking more than six months to be delivered.
Although the scheme is working hard to remain as affordable as possible, Motability acknowledges that there are fewer cars available than in previous years and in many cases, advance payments are higher than customers may be used to.
Also, vehicles are being removed from the scheme at short notice at the request of manufacturers and dealers are often struggling to get reliable information on delivery dates due to the various factors affecting new car supply.
Hayley Ingram, Manufacturer Relations Manager at Motability Operations, addressed the shortage of cars: “The main reason is shortages of components so the vehicles can’t be built, but the situation is not improving. It’s a perfect storm at the moment within the automotive industry, and it’s really having an impact.
When asked what the impact is on the Motability Scheme, Hayley responded: “Choice is reducing, advance payments are increasing… The discounts that I need to achieve to make our pricing as competitive as possible really just are not available right now.
“We had hoped that we would start to see some improvement towards the back end of this year. And now with the whole uncertainty of the Ukraine conflict, we really don’t know when that improvement will start to be. I don’t think we’ll see any improvement realistically in 2022.”
To hear more from Hayley at the Motability scheme, watch the informative video heere.
