ROME – The shortage of microcircuits has had very serious consequences on the global production of cars; that’s why a small detail becomes the protagonist in a world of industrial giants. It’s not quite like David and Goliath, but a tiny electronic component has prevailed over the industrial might of car manufacturers, large or small, east or west without distinction.
The production crisis that is causing substantial losses and an inopportune (given the period) contraction of the global market originates precisely from a detail with an almost negligible cost (those that are defined as chips also cost less than a dollar) but essential to make cars work that we use and produce today. Indispensable because it allows to operate and govern countless functions, that is everything that involves any electronic circuit or electrical mechanism; in practice, the functions that have been progressively subtracted from what were once non-electronic “mechanisms”.
The reasons for the crisis
Why then did the shortage of these fundamental components explode? There is the pandemic issue, of course, which in this case has touched a system that lacks that elasticity that allows other sectors to quickly adapt to the production needs of large manufacturers.
The flaw of the birth of the “chip” is the technological complexity and low cost, which combined have produced a situation in which it is not convenient for anyone to produce them at home. The result is an absolute monopoly of very few companies, mainly Chinese, which manufacture these components for the rest of the world. For example, the TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. group) covers practically half of the total semiconductor materials market (which is worth almost 60 billion dollars).
Unlike other automotive “small parts”, such as a bolt or plastic part that can be made quickly almost anywhere, the chips are produced in huge and complex factories capable of producing millions of them at low cost but under extremely rigid programming, for a slowdown, such as that resulting from the pandemic, cannot be recovered in a short time.
The current crisis has highlighted the strategic importance of these components, so much so as to push the European Union to issue a specific “Chips Act” to promote the local production of these components and therefore reduce dependence on Asian production. In the meantime, however, the major manufacturers have to choose between stopping production or filling the storage areas with incomplete cars, in both cases with substantial damage.
But where are the microchips in a car today?
The powertrain, that is, the on-board energy system, the one that makes every car move, without a microchip remains as still as a stone. Depending on the car’s drive technology, the engine, batteries, electric motors, power electronics and even the gearbox depend on the microprocessors. If on board there is an internal combustion engine, both petrol and diesel, the fuel injection system, the combustion control and the indispensable exhaust gas treatment, which includes recirculation system, catalyst, feeding and metering of the urea in diesel engines without chips do not work.
But also the behavior on the road, obtained thanks to the electronic traction and stability control of running gear, is now designed taking for granted the presence of microcircuits in the system.
The braking system it depends on microchips for controlled and differentiated actuation on the four wheels, control of each single brake, system status and temperature monitoring. In short, almost everything.
Entering the passenger compartment, the navigator it has microchips that allow the operation of the screen, the processor, where present also the cd, as well as of course the essential GPS positioning system.
The whole instrumentation available to the driver then, from the control panel, to the display, to the on-board computer and to the individual indicators, it cannot even turn on without the activation of very small and essential chips.
What is called today infotainment and all the new functions connected to vehicle connectivity (radio, audio playback, telephone, data exchange) are a real fiefdom of microchips inside every car.
The more and more numerous security technologies and driver assistance, from airbags, seat belts with pretensioners, parking sensors, radar, cameras, cruise control and lane keeping mode, as well as emergency braking, need microchips even on several levels of the electronic architecture that makes them work.
The air conditioning without a chip it can’t even measure temperature. To be able to regulate it according to the wishes of those on board, it needs additional microcircuits, inserted in more complex miniaturized electronic systems.
Semiconductors and printed circuits are also entrusted with the operation of two apparently simple elements, such as the lights e i wipers. The light beam, the activation sequence of the LEDs, the direction indicators themselves, as well as the rain sensor or the speed adjustment of the brushes on the windshield all depend on that small, inexpensive, but today sometimes unavailable component.
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