Wait for car models gets longer as chip shortage deepens in industry

Car dealers are losing 20 per cent of their monthly sales as models can't be supplied on time, says industry association.

If you were looking to drive home a new set of wheels a year ago, it probably would have been delivered to your front door quicker than a takeaway pizza. Not anymore. Along with the slow and frustrating journey of recovering from Covid, so is the waiting period to get the keys to your dream car.

For some models — a Mahindra Thar, for instance — the wait could extend up to 2022.

A global shortage of the semiconductor or microprocessing chip, which started off by biting a few automakers in October, is now an industrywide phenomenon, impacting everyone from Maruti Suzuki