Automakers around the world are finding ways to deal with the chip shortage. Peugeot’s remedy to not having enough chips is removing digital speedometers from its 308 line and replacing them with old-school analogue speedometers.
Demand for semiconductor chips is skyrocketing and suppliers are having trouble keeping up. The chip shortage is hitting the auto industry hard with almost no automaker safe the impact. Brands from Ford and General Motors to Toyota all have mitigated the semiconductor shortage by delaying or halting production lines.
Peugeot found an interesting way to keep production going, reports French news LCI. The automaker is falling back on old technology to help get it through these trying times by switching out the fancy digital speedometer for an analogue unit on the 308.
Peugeot upgraded its 308 line last summer, giving the cars’ interiors a slick technology kick. The cars gained a completely digital instrument panel as part of the i-Cockpit system.
The system was passed down from more popular models like the 208 and 2008 and the brand touts the feature as making the car more engaging to drive. Now, the model is losing the cool instrument panel and going back to analogue.
The analogue speedometers should begin returning to the Peugeot 308 by the end of May, reports Reuters. Peugeot is saving its chip reserves for digital dashboards in more popular models like the Peugeot 3008 crossover.
This fix appears to be short term as the current generation of the 308 — in production since 2013 — is due to be replaced by the next generation 308 coming out this fall. That car is still set to come out with a digital instrument cluster.
LCI reports that examples of the Peugeot 308 with the old-school analogue speedometers will have a price about $481 less than ones with the digital speedometer. Hopefully, Peugeot’s clever way of saving its reserves of chips pays off and keeps the lines going.
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