If you have been waiting for delivery of a new car or van recently then you may have noticed just how long the lead times are.
There is a number of reasons for this. Let us try to explain.
Firstly, inevitably, covid (the excuse for everything at the moment it seems!) Although most manufacturing plants are now back operational, because of social distancing, various restrictions in the different countries and of course staff self-isolating, most are behind in production.
To make matters worse, you would have heard about the worldwide shortage of semiconductors. These vital electronic component’s are used all over the modern vehicle and a shortage has forced many manufacturers to halt or slow down production lines. Global demand and a fire in a main factory in the far east has put huge pressures on the market.
Most manufacturers are predicting that much of 2022 will suffer from delays and long lead times until the sector recovers fully.
As a result, for those of us that are looking to sell a vehicle its good news as our assets have actually increased in value due to the shortage. That’s only good news of course if you don’t need to source a replacement vehicle.
The increase in values has also pushed the purchase price of vehicle’s, insurance and rental up as a result although here at 3B, we have tried our best to keep our prices as stable as we can.
One thing is for sure, it will be a bumpy ride throughout 2022 as we all scramble to get our hands on the few bits of stock that are floating about. For companies like us it will be a massive challenge to even keep the fleet size the same – a challenge we accept! Thankfully we have spent years building relationships with the main manufacturer’s so we are confident we can get the supply, albeit at a cost.
So if you are planning on replacing your car, looking to buy a van or increase your company fleet – maybe rental is a the short term fix you need?
