BRUSSELS — The geopolitical war around Dutch-based, yet Chinese-owned, chip supplier Nexperia is terrifying Europe’s carmakers that they’ll be hammered by a chip shortage that could wreak havoc with supply chains and shutter production lines.

The car industry’s supply of crucial chips from Nexperia is dwindling just weeks after the Dutch government seized control of Nexperia and both the U.S. and China imposed export controls on the company. 

“We will see production stops and slowdowns in short order globally because a lot of suppliers don’t have the depth of stock of the chips,” said a senior automotive official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the issue’s sensitivity. “The auto sector is at the heart of the storm.” 

Nexperia chips are used throughout the automotive value chain in everything from airbags to entertainment systems.

The shortage threatens a replay of 2022, when pandemic-era microchip shortages similarly brought car plants to a halt. Yet automakers have done little to shore up their supply chains against geopolitical shifts, and an EU plan to reshore some chip manufacturing is falling far short of its targets. 

The Dutch-based chipmaker warned its customers of an “unforeseen development that may affect the availability of certain products,” according to a force majeure declaration issued on Oct. 9, reported on by several media and seen by POLITICO. 

The notice lit a fire under automakers and their suppliers to get their hands on any available chips, provoking a run on the materials.

“It’s like the pandemic when people went on toilet paper buying sprees,” said a second auto industry insider.

Top of the list

Following the 2022 shortage, the EU passed the Chips Act to alleviate the sector’s dangerous reliance on other regions for advanced or “mature” chips.

Fast forward three years, and seemingly not much has changed. 

This time, mayhem kicked off when the Dutch government decided at the end of September to invoke a 1952 national law to seize control of Nexperia, which was acquired by Chinese company Wingtech in 2019.

The Dutch government feared that Nexperia’s CEO, who founded Wingtech, was transferring the chipmaker’s technology and production assets out of the country.

Its decision came a day after the U.S. extended export controls on Wingtech to its subsidiary Nexperia.

Four days after the Dutch seized control of Nexperia, the Chinese Commerce Ministry imposed export controls on Nexperia China, prohibiting the export of components manufactured in China. 

Chips are ubiquitously used in modern manufacturing, driving the green and digital transition. While Nexperia’s chips are not the most advanced ones, they are critical to automakers: A traditional car contains up to 500 of the company’s chips — an electric vehicle as many as 1,000.

China’s export clampdown on the chips, coupled with its control of rare-earth magnets — an equally important vehicle component — have sent the Nexperia crisis to the top of Brussels’ list of priorities.

“The issue of chips is one of big importance, for many aspects of our policy, most notably the energy transition,” European Commission chief spokesperson Paula Pinho said on Monday.

She added that Industry Commissioner Stéphane Séjourné raised the issue in a meeting with industry leaders on the same day, “to hear from the companies whether there are shortages.” 

The companies’ input fed into a call between EU trade chief Maroš Šefčovič and his Chinese counterpart Wang Wentao on Tuesday. Next up is an anticipated visit by Chinese officials to the EU to discuss the export controls.

Companies have already begun publicly discussing the potential impact of what’s happening at Nexperia. 

Car lobby group ACEA said last week that it was “deeply concerned by potential significant disruption” to manufacturing if there was no quick resolution of the interruption of Nexperia’s supply of chips. 

The group argued that the chips coming from Nexperia could be sourced elsewhere, but shifting would take longer than the current stock of Nexperia chips would last. 

Volkswagen has warned its workers that potential production stoppages are imminent, German outlet Bild reported. 

“Nexperia is not a direct supplier of the Volkswagen Group. However, some Nexperia parts are used in our vehicle components, which are supplied to us by our direct suppliers,” a VW spokesperson told POLITICO. “At this time, our production is unaffected. However, given the evolving circumstances, short-term effects on production cannot be ruled out.”

Second Chips Act

The Nexperia case and possible shortages have put the EU’s dangerous microchip reliance back on the political map. 

The European Commission announced this week that it plans to introduce a second Chips Act in the first quarter of next year, following a scheduled review due by September 2026. 

Currently, the bloc is nowhere close to reaching the goal of the first Chips Act, which was to boost the bloc’s market share in the global microchips value chain to 20 per cent by 2030 — about double its current share. 

Both lawmakers and EU countries want a second Chips Act. 

“The European Chips Act 2.0 is in the making. But the Nexperia case shows the time is short,” Herman Quarles van Ufford, senior policy fellow at the European Council for Foreign Relations, said in a blog post on Wednesday.