Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra have
lowered chip usage to reduce the waiting
Tata Motors and Mahindra are estimated to
have over 300,000 pending orders.
Auto companies hamstrung by the continuing
semiconductor shortage are taking
countermeasures such as bringing down chip
usage per vehicle or offering cars with fewer
chip-dependent features.
Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M)
have undertaken these measures in a desperate
effort to improve vehicle supplies and bring
down the waiting period, which, in certain cases,
is at a staggering 12 months
Both companies are estimated to be sitting on
over 300,00 pending orders.
Tatas optimise chip usage
Tata Motors, India’s third-largest carmaker, has
dramatically cut the number of chips used per
vehicle.
The maker of Safari SUVs has halved the number
of chips used in one specific component that
powers the vehicle.
While Tata Motors officials did not identify the
vehicle model, they said that the company was
working on optimisation of chips to tide over
the supply crisis
Cross-leveraging JLR expertise
Tata Motors has been working alongside its
British brands Jaguar and Land Rover to cross-
leverage their expertise for the future
generation of electric and electronic
architecture.
Electric vehicles need many more chips than
fossil-fuel powered vehicles.
M&M reduces chip usage
To get around the shortage, M&M has created
step-down variants of the in-demand XUV700
SUV, which lack some features that customers
had opted for.
For instance, the chip-dependent wireless
mobile charging feature has been removed by
the company in the flagship SUV before being
offered to the customer.