Nissan Defers Ariya EV Launch Due to Semiconductor Crisis: Bloomberg

Nissan Motor Co Ltd NSANF has postponed its flagship Ariya electric vehicle (EV) launch due to the pandemic resurgence and the ongoing global semiconductor chip crisis, Bloomberg reports.
The Ariya SUV was showcased in July and was scheduled for sale in mid-2021.
Nissan is banking on the 12 new models, which it plans to release in the 18 months through November to boost sales. Models like the Nissan Rogue received good responses in the markets, including the U.S.
The company’s sales quality improvement with the new models helped slim losses for the recently ended FY20, COO Ashwani Gupta said. However, the chip crisis is deterring the hi-tech car production plans.
According to Deloitte, automotive electronics, including displays to in-car systems, accounted for 40% of a car’s manufacturing cost in 2020, compared to just 18% twenty years ago.
The company had temporarily suspended Mexican plant June production due to the chip crisis.
Nissan’s Ariya includes Nissan’s ProPilot 2.0 autonomous driving technology, a self-parking feature, and Amazon.com Inc’s AMZN voice-based digital assistant Alexa.
The crisis explains the limited-edition model’s winter launch in Japan, followed by a wider domestic and global launch.
Nissan estimates the chip crisis to affect the production of 500,000 units for FY21. The carmaker is shifting up its cars’ features and prioritizing the production of its most popular models. It aims to recover around 50% of its lost production in the latter half of 2021.
Nissan is expecting tens of thousands in unit sales from Ariya in 2021 with a major contribution from Europe.
Price action: NSANF shares closed higher by 0.83% at $5.11 on Thursday.

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