Jaguar recently announced that they would be pausing the production of their I-Pace electric SUV, citing a shortage of batteries coming from LG Chem.
The pause in production will last for one week starting the following Monday at the production line on Graz, Austria.
The Jaguar I-Pace has been a very successful electric car all things considered. It was designed and built from the ground up to be an electric car first and foremost. It released to a lot of acclaim and awards, becoming one of the first real alternatives to buying a Tesla.
The I-Pace as well all know however is not a car that Jaguar is making hundreds of thousands of, its a relatively low production car when compared to something like a Toyota Camry or even the Tesla Model 3. It’s estimated that 18,000 I-Paces were sold worldwide last year, or about 1,500 a month.
When looking at numbers these relatively low, it is sort of surprising to think that Jaguar doesn’t have enough batteries for the small volume of cars.
But it seems like LG Chem has been having some serious trouble supplying the company with even these low amounts of batteries. A Jaguar Land Rover spokesperson released the following statement:
‘Jaguar Land Rover has adjusted production schedules of the Jaguar I-Pace in Graz due to temporary supplier scheduling issues. We are working with the supplier to resolve this and minimise impact on customer orders.’
The news has awkward timing as it arrives on the heels of the UK announcing that it would move up its ban of new gasoline car sales from 2040 to 2035.
Yes, at the end of the day one week of halting production is not the complete end of the world but it is indicative of a potentially growing problem. This is not the first time that we have heard that battery constraints have negatively impacting electric vehicle production.
A few ago, Audi announced that it would have to cut back on the e-tron production due to battery constraints, and Mercedes has also reduced its production targets of the EQC from 60,000 to 30,000.
There will be a growing problem for automakers who do not build their own battery factories as every company will now vie to have their batteries delivered. If this problem is already happening when electric cars are still in their early stages in terms of adoption, the problem will only grow unless each automaker can build up an underlying battery foundation to support their EV production.
You have to look no further than Tesla, the blueprint is right there, over 350,000 cars sold in the past year and there were no issues with battery shortages.
What do you guys think of the news? Will the problem only continue to grow? Let us know down in the comments below.
Source: thisismoney.co.uk
