When constructing a car, one of the key components is the wiring harness that bundles together all the wiring for the vehicle.
Surprisingly most wiring harnesses used to come from Ukraine of all places. So when Russia invaded Ukraine, that completely disrupted the wiring harness supply.
To work around that, manufacturers had to come up with either new, stable suppliers or invest in their own production lines.
Covid. As mentioned in the article, but there were multiple impacts on that. For example, it made it incredibly difficult to do lease returns. If people leasing their cars can’t return them, then they can’t get into new vehicles. Similar, re-sellers of lease returns and fleet vehicles have no stock because nobody is returning their lease.
It’s complicated.
As someone who got to see this from the inside:
Surprisingly most wiring harnesses used to come from Ukraine of all places. So when Russia invaded Ukraine, that completely disrupted the wiring harness supply.
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/ukraine-invasion-hurts-flow-wire-harnesses-carmakers-2022-03-02/
To work around that, manufacturers had to come up with either new, stable suppliers or invest in their own production lines.
https://www.carscoops.com/2024/07/dealers-brace-for-the-next-pandemic-related-supply-issue-fewer-lease-returns/