The microchip shortage has had a profound effect across the auto industry, impacting production and feature availability for every major automaker. That includes General Motors, which is now grappling with a backlog of Chevy Silverado HD pickup trucks ready to ship from the GM Oshawa plant in Canada.
According to a recent report from Automotive News, which cites a statement made by union Chairperson for Unifor Local 222 Jason Gale, there are in fact 11,000 Chevy Silverado HD trucks parked at the Oshawa plant waiting on shipment. Rail transport simply can’t move the backlog of vehicles fast enough.
The backlog of Chevy Silverado vehicles is the result of GM’s so-called “build-shy” strategy, which enabled The General to keep production lines moving despite a dearth of available microchips. The strategy essentially entailed building vehicles without chip-intensive features or components, then fitting those missing features or components once additional microchips were sourced.
As chip supplies improve, the backlog of vehicles are completed and ready to ship. The hang-up now, however, is that there’s simply not enough rail freight available to move them all. Part of the issue is that the Chevy Silverado HD is dimensionally larger than the light-duty Chevy Silverado 1500, which means each HD unit takes up more space on the train cars. Although there are some light-duty pickups in the backlog, most are the heavy-duty Chevy Silverado HD. According to Gale, the backlog is reducing, albeit slowly.
General Motors began production of the Chevy Silverado HD at the GM Oshawa plant late last year, previously investing some $1.3 billion into the facility. At the moment, the Oshawa plant is operating in a two-shift rotation, while a third shift is expected to kick off in August, increasing the number of hourly workers from 1,800 to 2,600.
Notably, GM’s crosstown rival, Ford, has also amassed a stockpile of vehicles, with reports of some 53,000 Ford vehicles waiting for microchips.
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Comments
You can’t get a better truck than one built in Oshawa
Nope, but the same will be built at any of the other plants though…
This chip problem has been dragging on for way too long!
I’m beginning to think it’s part of the plan.
So Frustrating…… I ordered a 2022 Silverado 2500 HD from my local dealer in USA in September 2021. GM sends to Oshawa and says its built ready to ship in November 2021. Its been built 5 1/2 months saying ” Built -waiting to be shipped” and no other communication from GM towards the dealer.
Why didn’t someone at GM have the decency to be honest and tell its customers what was going on. !!!
I understand chip shortages but to string it out “Waiting to be shipped” for over 5 1/2 months and then reveal its probably missing chips… Makes GM, Chevy, Oshawa look bad . Now it makes me wonder about flat spots on tires and other quality issues it will have from sitting too long. Just my 2 cents worth.
It was waiting to be shipped, what else are they supposed to tell you? The delay had nothing to do with chips, it was a shipping issue. Why not complain to all the Canadian truckers who blocked the bridge and held up shipping?
Now you’re imagining many other issues that will be a non-issue. Did you complain when you bought off a dealer lot and you picked something that had sat there for 6 months?
You chose to order a truck when you knew about multiple issues that were possible. You could have been satisfied with what you had but that wasn’t good enough. Now live with your decision and stop complaining. Get some perspectives on issues that really exist and figure out how good you have it.
Did you not read the article? It states rail shipping issues, NOT Canadian truckers.
I am quoting facts from experience on my order nothing else. The point I was making is GM could have informed the dealer and myself it was a build shy truck missing chips. GM boasted about having an updated plant- which was retooled in record time- to build the 2500 Chevy Silverado because of all the demand. Even the dealer thought it would be here and cant get an answer as too why its not shipped. According to the article it will be shipped by rail- nothing to do with truckers . As for quality issues and flat spots on tires – The dealer informed me any quality issues will be covered under warranty .
The vin # the dealer received said it was an early build at the plant . Well within the first 200 trucks built. Not 11,000 trucks later. I have seen articles from consumers from Ford, GM , etc. some customers have been waiting 1.5 years for their order. Tough times for everyone right now…..
I get it David. I’ve had a Truck on Order since Jan 3,2022. My order hasn’t even been sent to GM yet, its still sitting with the dealer as they only get so many allotments. Maybe I will see a truck this year??? It was the post from GMC Fan that I was referring to.
Sorry this was supposed to be for GMC. My bad. I support your post as well.
Last time you bought a car off a dealer lot, did you check the certification plate for the build date? It’s not unheard of for a car to sit on a dealer lot for 6-12 months. A car made in Korea, Japan or Germany is minimum 3 months old by the time it rolls onto the lot.
Sam, I don’t buy from Germany, Japan or Korea as you mentioned. I do look at date of manufacturing , been down that road before with FLAT SPOT TIRES. Sucks when the manufacturer cant replace the same tires because they don’t use anymore. So much for a warranty. Lesson learned.
Google flat spots on new tires. Interesting info on todays tires….
David, you must be the only person in the world who ordered a new vehicle, and didn’t know there were chip shortages effecting production and deliveries.
Chip shortages was never in question. Not being transparent with your order and how communication is non existent to a customer is the issue . I guess there is a shortage of communication to customers as well.
Pretty easy to say it isn’t ready and missing parts. The only communication is the GM.com site which isn’t any help. At least if you ordered an appliance, furniture etc., they could tell you on back order and date of delivery.
I imagine an Electric car takes many more chips than what my order is. Hope the shortage is better by then. Or Maybe that’s part of the shortage? Who knows.
Ya I agree I ordered a Colorado zr2 in Oct of 2021.Three weeks ago they said it was being shipped from the Wentzville plant so it takes more than 3weeks to get to Ontario still waiting in fact .
Ill sell you my 18, all the options work.
Mine was delivered last November after sitting for months in a field outside the Flint Assembly for who knows how long. I was having a DEF issue all winter, which would come and go so I hesitated to take it in thinking it a poor def fluid issue. Well finally the issue didn’t go away and took it in. Turned out to be a loose or corroded (I’m thinking now chewed??) wire going into the def fluid tank. I’m sure that field was full of mice all summer and fall! Thankfully the tech took the time to actually test and diagnose then manually fixed the wiring issue, or I would probably still be waiting for my truck! Good News is it’s an amazing beast of a truck and you WILL get it but a little transparency for a customer spending 60K plus would go a long way in my opinion.
Hey David – has the dealer received any other ’22 2500HD’s in the interim? Or have you asked them? So I assume yours is one the of 11,000 sitting, waiting to be delivered. Mine is as well. Ordered in Feb 2022. Not as long of a wait as you but it has the status of “built – waiting to be shipped”.
Erik, yes they had a few delivered over the past couple months. Most of them are what customers have ordered. Nothing lately.
I totally understand your quality concerns, tire issues and such from sitting too long?
I would be concerned as well
Sorry your order has been delayed so long, Can you cancel it? just wondering
Perhaps order a 2023 ?
anyway hope you get your truck soon, the new Chevy HD’s look awesome Enjoy
Well, there is Russia, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and many other places to live.
With the money the corps have it would seem they could build their own chip plant. After all they are not going away.
Even if they built one, they A: couldn’t staff it and B: Couldn’t get the equipment from ASML. Both are in as short of supply as chips. Just no, not a good idea.
One, the chip processes are trade secrets. TSMC invests around $40 billion per year in their plants and technology. That’s 30% of GM’s entire revenue. So you want your car to get 10-20% more expensive? That’s assuming that GM will be successful: only two companies in the world have been. AMD and IBM gave up, Intel has repeatedly failed over the last 7 years, which is why they’re in a world of hurt right now.
The biggest names in tech: Apple, Nvidia, Broadcom, Qualcomm, Sony, don’t even try to make their own chips.
Two, chips have to be specially designed for the specific process. You can’t take a chip designed for TSMC and have it made by Samsung, not without comprehensive changes and testing. Vendors aren’t going to spend the time and money making GM-custom chips, and when GM’s chip plant has a power outage, fire, or other failure, they’re screwed again.
As someone living in Montreal and been waiting for a long time now to get my Silverado 1500 Duramax High Country I would be ok to go to my dealership, sign the papers, etc. and get the truck by myself… Perhaps GM could setup a temporary booth or something over there to help themselves and customers until things would become more favorable for GM.
This is where all the union loving, contract hugging, govt sugar deal loving the Big 3 have implemented for 100 years is an obstacle. No matter what EVs they build you got to go thru Slimy Sam the dealer to buy and the truckers union to deliver it and all the GM poor customer support practices and Hailey warranties to escalate an issue
I’m currently working in Fort Wayne Indiana. There is a gm plant here that builds the Silverado. There are farmers fields full of trucks without chips here. The rumor is all the trucks are trash now because the soy based oil they coat the wires in is attracting rats and mice. The wiring harnesses are getting eaten out of them.
This isn’t really a new story. Flint MI, where GM builds the 2500 and 3500 in the US, has had new trucks stored all over the city for almost a year now. GM’s had what looks like thousands of trucks stored at their Stampings plant on I-75, and in a nearby grass field. I think they were also using a parking lot at the Flint airport, to store trucks. A dealer friend tells me he’s had trucks sitting completed at Flint for over 6 months, that he can’t get shipped, or even get an expected delivery date for.
Ford’s doing the same thing, everywhere you look in and around Dearborn there are new F-150’s just sitting, waiting for chips.
They’re sitting there because they’re the ugliest hunk if crap on the road… not the chip shortage! I mean… my god…. how can anyone get past that hideous front end?!! When I saw pictures of it years ago, I actually thought it was a joke picture… then I saw them at the Auto Show and stood there slack-jawwed like the rest of the people! I was a diehard Chevy guy until that moment!
Eric how is Chevy front end any different from ford ,coming straight at you it is difficult to tell them apart until they get closer.
This chip shortage is not just affecting HD trucks. I just drove by my local Chevy dealer (Home Motors in Santa Maria, CA) and the lot is essentially empty of new vehicles. They might have a total of 15 new vehicles on the lot.
I’m willing to come to the plant and pick one up myself for the right price!
I’m tired of the “chip shortage” statements. Here is what really happened. There isn’t a chip shortage at all. In fact, production is at an all time high.
COVID hits. Car sales halt. Car makers go to the silicon fabs and ask to change the production allotment, even to pay a small penalty. All of the chip makers told everyone the same thing: if you change the allotment we’ve sold you downward, we have others that will purchase all that you give up. You will NOT be able to purchase capacity again for 3 years. The others have pre-purchased ALL THAT WE ADD for 3 years. 3 YEARS. Because of the inflexibility, we won’t charge you the reduction/change fee. Please sign this new contract that details all of this.
Next problem: the chips were finished but the materials to package and mount them were locked away in China and not moving across to Taiwan. This created a backlog across all industries. There is no longer any backlog. This cleared ~6 months ago.
Not every car maker signed. Most did. Guess who signed and who didn’t?
Telsa sales are up to an annual rate over 1m cars.
So-all these sitting in these fields for a year probably won’t be discounted significantly or not all all, even tho you have the sun beating down on the dashboards and paint. At a minimum-if I was taking delivery of one of these trucks the paint would have to be clay barred followed by a good polish. Of course I don’t know if I want the dealer to do because the “screw-up” factor could be high.
They can’t make enough chips now, they will need to make at least twice as many to ‘fix’ the existing problem. It is my understanding that the BCM needs the missing chip that control the heated seated seats and the other options. That is the labour of replacing the module and then reprograming. This in itself will not prevent the vehicle from being delivered, it will just have cold seats, cold steering wheel and missing some other non-regulation options, like my neighbours new sierra. The ones sitting all over Oshawa have raised wipers which means they aren’t shippable, which probably points to a ECM issue. Multiply this by every plant and being nice, if they have prepared, 30 mins (extremely optimistic) to repair each unit and you still get cold seats in winter and hot seats in summer. So come trade in time in 3 years, does this force you to come back to gm to flog a 50grand truck with no options?
Wait, if you shut them down wouldn’t that close more plants killing brands,jobs and more American’s???
SO you didn’t think your post all the way through.
GM has always made cars in Canada Ford too,
many of the names they use are based on Canadian and American cities(Windsor,Cadillac,Pontiac for example) based in the great lakes and on the ST. Lawrence sea way both Canada and America have long worked together building Fords And Chevy’s. The great lakes also had iron ore too so the entire process could take place right there in the region, then Akron brought the rubber business in and made the tires.
There was once a time the great lake region thrived with industries!!!! the water ways make transporting good very easy. Erie Canal ring a bell?? So the industry is still based where it formed and where all the plants were built.
And his comments lack any merit, he just spews ignorant banter.
…Well, it beats being stockpiled in the Aluminum recycling junkyard like the POS Fords! 🤣
It just seeme like some did a better job of securing acces to chips than others. My daughter ordered a US built X5 in March and was told 6-8 weeks to build it and it was delivered to the dealer in under 5. On the other hand, I ordered a US built Mercedes SUV around the same time and they’re telling me supply issues will push it out to July/Aug. Seems like GM’s sourcing deals just falied to anticipate the current environment….I’m sure there are many others like them in the same boat. That said, if delays keep going, nothing stopping the buyer from walking away and buying something that’s available.
Wow Karen…. Get a life. Hater
I’d love to see an analysis comparing the long-term benefits/detriments of “Just In Time” delivery versus the old-fashioned stockpiling of parts to see whether any monies saved by JIT have now been surpassed by losses due to halted production.
I try to ignore mary barra fan club hoping they just go away or someone takes away their keyboard. But Nooooo!
This is nothing more than propaganda for GM. Been waiting 23 weeks since the vehicle was built and keep getting told another week. If I recall, 2 1/2 years ago the North America OEM’s were building 17.5 million vehicles compared to 14.5 million vehicles and GM wants to blame it on railcars. Put the blame where it belongs, right on GM. They have no clue still after 2 years how to manage the inventory. Maybe another idea would be to focus on current customers instead of worthless electric vehicles which is only 5% of the market. Another thing to note is not all vehicles at Oshawa are shipped by railcars. Mine is one of those vehicles and still waiting for it. Gm is also shown to be no help in trying to figure out why it has taken so long and sharing why it has taken so long. Keep getting told many people have eyes on it but no one can put their hands on it to get it to move.