Volkswagen changes electronics procurement policy to build semiconductor supply chain resilience
By Bradley Osborne - 8th September 2023
Germany – Volkswagen AG of Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony – the parent of several automotive manufacturers including Traton SE – has announced its new procurement strategy for vehicle electronics, intended to make its semiconductor supply chains more robust and transparent.
The group’s normal practice has been to allow its Tier 1 suppliers to decide what parts they use in electronic components such as vehicle control units. From now on, Volkswagen will specify which semiconductors and other parts it would prefer in its supplied components. Not only will this allow the group to take a firmer hold on its critical supply chains, it will also help to reduce the diversity of the hardware it uses in its vehicles, meaning that vehicle software can be made to be far simpler.
