28th May 2021 11:05 am
The rebound in automotive manufacturing has been stymied by a global shortage of semiconductors writes Jason Ford
Anyone in the market for a new Peugeot 308 will be intrigued to find its dashboard fitted with an analogue speedometer instead of a digital display.
This has nothing to do with adding a little retro chic to the 308. Instead, it reflects the decisions car manufacturers are making in the wake of a global semiconductor shortage that has seen Peugeot prioritise chips for the digital speedometers of models such as the Peugeot 3008 SUV.
With the sort of elan you would expect from the automotive industry, a spokesperson for Stellantis – formed after the merger of Peugeot and Fiat Chrysler – told Reuters that the analogue speedo was ‘a nifty and agile way of getting around a real hurdle for car production, until the ‘chips’ crisis ends’.
Click the thumbs up >Fleet decision-makers expect around four in 10 of their cars and vans will be fully electric within the next three years, the Arval Mobility Observatory 2021 Barometer has found.
The research found car operators said 42% of their vehicles will be BEVs in that timescale, with their van counterparts saying 37%.
The level of expected EV uptake was similar across fleets of different sized.
Just over half (54%) of car fleets with more than 500 employees were expected to be BEVs, compared to 38% with fewer than 10 employees.
Responses were similar for van fleets, with 48% expected by larger employers and 32% by smaller organisations.
Click the thumbs up >Now is the “perfect time” for fleet decision-makers to reassess their fleet needs and start electrifying their vehicles.
That’s according to Matthew Walters, head of consultancy services and customer value at LeasePlan UK.
He says that Covid-19 has impacted fleet strategies in a number of ways so there’s “no better time to rethink and realign”, particularly with the 2030 ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans two replacement cycles away.
“The fossil-fuelled vehicles that have been our preferred mode of transport for decades are on the way out,” said Walters. “The future is electric, perhaps hydrogen electric.”