MADRID (Reuters) – Luca de Meo, the recently appointed CEO of French carmaker Renault, said a shortage in semiconductors and other rising costs are set to boost car prices, Spanish newspaper Expansion reported on Thursday.
“Prices will rise even more in the coming 12 months,” he told the newspaper in an interview, as chip makers are taking advantage of the leverage scarcity is giving them.
Car prices are already rising as carmakers focus on more expensive models due to the lack of chips, de Meo told Expansion.
Also boosting car prices are the rising costs of steel, gas, energy, copper and aluminium, he noted.
Building competitive chip manufacturing capacities in Europe would take more than 10 years, he said.
(Reporting by Inti Landauro; editing by Jason Neely)
