Audi temporarily deletes features amid semiconductor shortage
Audi Australia becomes the latest brand to temporarily remove features from its cars to ration its semiconductor supply – though light is beginning to appear at the end of the tunnel.
German car maker Audi has followed its luxury competitors in removing a handful of tech-heavy features from its models, as a shortage of semiconductors continues to wreak havoc on the global automotive industry.
Applicable to vehicles built from September onwards, Qi wireless phone charging (badged ‘Audi phone box light’) is no longer available across all Audi models without an RS badge that are typically equipped with the feature – covering everything from the $35,800 (before on-road costs) A1 35 TFSI city car to the $172,700 E-Tron S Sportback large electric SUV.
Electrically-adjustable steering columns have also been (temporarily) removed from applicable vehicles – covering most models from the Q5 medium SUV and A6 large car up, excluding RS models – while tyre pressure monitoring has been stripped from the S6 sedan, S7 Sportback, E-Tron SUV and E-Tron Sportback.
Buyers of affected models will be given two choices: purchase a car without the features for a lower price, or wait for the items to become available again.
While the exact figures vary from model to model, customers that opt for the former can expect price reductions of approximately $400 for the wireless charging system, approximately $600 for the electrically-adjustable steering column, and approximately $450 for the tyre pressure monitoring system.
Alternatively, buyers can choose to wait – though the exact delay they will experience will vary from model to model.
Supply for the affected features is beginning to improve, with an Audi Australia spokesperson indicating the restrictions are expected to begin easing over the next few weeks – meaning specification sheets should return to normal soon.
Audi isn’t alone in needing to temporarily remove features from its cars, with rival BMW recently deleting touchscreen functionality (and the Reversing Assistant feature) from 200 of its vehicles’ infotainment screens, in exchange for a $800 price cut.
It follows equipment cuts made to other BMW models earlier in 2021, while cross-town competitor Mercedes-Benz also temporarily removed the Pre-Safe safety system from a handful of its models.
As a refresher, the semiconductor shortage emerged out of the COVID-19 pandemic, as the quicker-than-expected recovery of new car sales caught the automotive and semiconductor industries off guard, the latter of which transitioned much of its capacity towards producing chips for consumer electronics and healthcare products.
With an estimated 300 to 3000 semiconductor chips in each new car – used for everything from infotainment and safety systems, to electric car powertrains – and the six-month production time for just one semiconductor, industry experts predict the current crisis won’t end until mid-2022.
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