Czech car sector to make fewer vehicles due to chip shortage

Czech car makers will produce quarter a million fewer cars than expected this year due to the global shortage of chips and the automotive sector will lose 200 billion crowns ($9.14 billion) in sales, the Auto Industry Association (AutoSAP) said on Sunday.

AutoSAP said domestic passenger car production dropped by 53.1 per cent in September year-on-year, to 56,157 cars.

It said the chip shortage impact would exceed that of pandemic shutdowns last year, and called on the government to activate an aid programme created amid the coronavirus pandemic last year to compensate firms for wages of idled workers.

AutoSAP said production rose 2.9% year--on-year cumulatively in the January-September period to 831,653 cars.

"Already since August, production has been significantly affected by output curbs and the September statistic confirms the negative trend," AutoSAP said.

The country's biggest producer, Volkswagen 's Skoda Auto, has said it would significantly limit or shut production at its Czech plants from next week, possibly until the end of the year.