Popular Models Like Sorento and Sportage Take 10 to 13 Months for Delivery
[Asia Economy Reporter Yu Je-hoon] The domestic finished car companies' 'delivery crisis' is intensifying due to the global shortage of automotive semiconductors that has struck since the beginning of the year. With the semiconductor supply shortage coinciding with increased demand, some popular models are taking about a year from order to delivery.
According to the industry on the 3rd, the Kia Sorento Hybrid (HEV) model is expected to take more than 13 months from order to delivery as of the 1st. The Sorento gasoline model also takes 10 months, and the diesel model takes 11 months for delivery. Sorento is a popular model that ranked 6th in domestic car sales last month according to a survey by Kaizyu Data Research Institute.
The Kia Sportage, which was released last July and ranked 1st in domestic car sales last month, is also expected to take 10 months for delivery for both gasoline and hybrid models. In addition, popular sedan models K5 and K8 are known to take 6 to 10 months to receive the hybrid models.
In the case of Hyundai Motor Company, the situation is somewhat better compared to Kia, but bottlenecks persist in some models. The mid-size SUV Santa Fe hybrid model is expected to take about 8 to 9 months for delivery, and the Avante gasoline and hybrid models also take about 6 months. The recently released compact SUV Casper has seen increased demand, with an expected delivery time of about 4 to 5 months.
Dedicated electric vehicles are also experiencing serious bottlenecks. The Ioniq 5, which applies the electric vehicle exclusive platform E-GMP, is expected to take 8 months for delivery, while the Kia EV6 and Genesis GV60 are expected to take more than 12 months (1 year). Especially for electric vehicles, it is difficult to estimate delivery times as government zero-emission vehicle subsidies and production-sales are closely linked.
Hyundai Motor Company explained, "The semiconductor supply shortage combined with next year's zero-emission vehicle subsidy issues may further lengthen the waiting period," adding, "Especially since next year's subsidies have not been concretely determined, the situation is quite fluid."
The reasons for the worsening delivery wait times include production disruptions due to the automotive semiconductor shortage and increased demand. In fact, the domestic sales volume of the five domestic finished car companies last month was about 123,000 units, down 14.2% compared to the same month last year. Although semiconductor supply has somewhat eased in the fourth quarter, it is still far from full recovery. Recently, concerns about the parts supply chain have increased due to the spread of the COVID-19 Omicron variant.
Except for some advanced features such as Smart Cruise Control (SCC), delivery times can be shortened accordingly, but consumers find it difficult to give up various advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) which have become common. An industry official said, "Recently, some finished car companies have started working overtime, so the situation is improving, but it is not yet on track," adding, "This situation is expected to continue until the first half of next year."
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