Industry News: Since 2020, More Than Half of New Vehicle Launches Have Been Delayed

[Anthony Fongaro]

Automakers have been struggling since 2020 to launch their new vehicles on time. Shifts to creating electric vehicles and the COVID-19 pandemic created large supply chain issues. These issues have increased delays for new vehicles to be launched. 

PwC Consulting discovered in a report that 34% of vehicle launches 2023 had production delays. An additional 21% of delays were "due to other factors". PwC did a calculation of production delays with issues such as quality standards, supply chain issues, and workforce situations. They compared actual to planned production dates.

Within this analysis, automaker delays can cost them around $200 million annually. Compare this to 2018, where 5% of launches faced delays and 18% had setbacks from other issues.  2023 saw automakers complete 45% of their launches, the most since 2019. Delays dropped to 30% in 2022 with 39% of production delays. 

According to the PwC report, there are several reasons for the delays. These include the advancement of driver assistance systems, various software issues, and more EV vehicle launches.  PwC's reports expect that the production setbacks will last until 2026.  

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[G. David Felt]

This is to be expected with a whole new assortment of EVs. This is no different than with the long decades of ICE autos and as they added tech to the autos they ended up with problems. Just look at the 1980's of engines trying to use computer chips then to manage how many cylinders would run at a moment to optimize fuel efficiency and the horror that GM had with the V8/6/4 engine.

Today's EVs are cutting edge but can understandably have issues since this is cutting edge and early for the tech. Here the auto companies will need to really test and make sure the EV is ready for prime time as unlike Tesla who was able to take years to figure out their software and their quality concerns, that they are still struggling with, as more Auto Companies go EV, the competition will become more fierce and people will not forgive poor quality in the early release much anymore.

GM problems with launching hopefully will be figured out before they get everything going in 2024, but I do think that the Koreans are going to dominate the next few years as they truly will challenge Tesla.

[Drew Dowdell]

I guess when the whole industry is having to change at once, it should be expected.  There's a lot of lag in the building of components too.