Many are back at work this week. But many car factory workers have to stay home for a few more days. Many of them are fixed in France. The reason is still the lack of semiconductors and electronic components.

Thus, the Stellantis (formerly PSA) plant in Rennes was closed for the whole week. The site deals exclusively with the Citroën C5 Aircross. However, production was restarted a few days after a three-week hiatus, due to the summer vacation. But this traditional reduction did not allow to replenish the stock of semiconductors.

Having already been stressed, the supply of these heavily used items in our cars full of electronics has again been disrupted. Malaysian supplier Stellantis has been forced to shut down its factory due to a combination of Covid. The 2,000 employees of Rennes were thus affected, and the majority were put into partial unemployment. Sochaux’s website is also affected. 3008 production will stop for a few days.

The same goes for the Toyota plant near Valenciennes. For the same reason, with the Malaysian supplier, the start of the school year has been postponed by two weeks. Production was scheduled to resume on August 23, and at best it wouldn’t be until September 6. Thus 4,500 persons were placed under the Partial Activity Scheme, at 84% of the net salary. A situation that takes place in the midst of the launch of the Yaris Cross, and its first copies have hit the selling points. So sellers have to advertise longer delivery times.

It is clear that the shortage of semiconductors is not only affecting French factories. After the summer break, the Volkswagen plant in Wolfsburg will partially resume operations. Only the morning shift will work, other employees will be under unemployment. Audi has decided to extend the summer vacation by a week at two German manufacturers.