COVID has wreaked havoc in a number of different ways the past few years, and one of the industries hit hardest has been the automotive industry. From a lack of new vehicles to rising prices for pre-owned rides, there’s been no shortage of issues when it comes to purchasing a new vehicle—and a major reason for that is semiconductor microchip shortages. Read on to learn more about the microchip shortages that are leading to new vehicle shortages in 2022, with Calgary’s very own Jack Carter Chev GMC!

A semiconductor is a material, like silicon, that both conducts and insulates electricity. As such, semiconductors are an integral part of the common microchip, found everywhere from your phone to your car. There has been a massive shortage of these semiconductor microchips, due to two main reasons. One, semiconductors are made in factories, whose schedules were thrown a massive wrench thanks to the impact of COVID. It was early in 2020, when factory work was nearly brought to a complete standstill, that these shortages began to occur. This, along with an imbalance in supply and demand—in no small part due to the rise of home offices, again, due to COVID—has caused a major issue in the supply chain.

Despite the automotive industry only accounting for about 10% of the semiconductor microchips used in the market, the demand is far outpacing the rate at which they can be produced. In fact, it takes up to 26 weeks from the time a microchip is ordered until it can actually be delivered. Different manufacturers are attempting to handle this in different ways; while some OEMs are pushing for pre-orders, others are closing their pre-orders down and attempting to gauge customer demand based on historical data. Not only that, but a single vehicle can use up to 1,500 microchips—with not all microchips being equal, while shortages are impacting them all.

Luckily, Jack Carter Chevrolet GMC is one of the larger, and more prestigious dealerships in western Canada, and as a result we are able to bring in more new vehicles than many other dealerships. However, if you’re eyeing up a particular model or trim from our vehicle lineup, you should come visit us sooner than later in order to provide some assurance that you’ll get the model you’re after. Simply stop by our dealership and chat with a member of our sales team. They’ll have a better idea of what kind of supply and demand exists for each individual model, and can even help you get on a waitlist for one of our exciting new electric models. Of course, we also carry a wide selection of constantly changing pre-owned vehicles spanning all makes and models, so no matter what you’re looking for, come visit Jack Carter Chev GMC!