'Cumulatively, 50K XUV700s are spoken for, signifying a value of near Rs 10,000 crore. According to dealer estimates, the delivery schedules for certain variants of the Thar are as long as one year, and the XUV7OO has seen an even faster ramp-up with the initial 50,000 bookings made in just two days.

Company director (auto sector) Rajesh Jejurikar has often said that the order-book has even surpassed their internal expectations by a wide margin, with delivery schedules spread across months. Chandra agrees, 'For electrics, the waiting period is the highest, and we are fast ramping up our supplies.' Then there are other companies such as Mahindra & Mahindra, which have seen superlative demand for new launches such as the Thar and the XUV7OO SUVs. The green vehicles pack in a lot of technology and require numerous chips as part of their architecture. The chip shortage, in fact, is having a very negative impact on the nascent electric vehicles business. Overall, our pending bookings are more than 3.5 times of our monthly sales,' Shailesh Chandra, president of Tata MotorsРІР‚в„ў passenger vehicles business, says. 'Waiting period for various models varies between one and six months. Tata Motors, which is riding high on the success of new models, is also estimated to have a waiting backlog of over one lakh cars.

The current assessment is that the problem will persist at least until the first half of 2022. The global shortage of semiconductors has emerged as a big impediment to any chances of an early ramp-up in production, and companies say that it will take time for the situation to normalise. Company MD S S Kim says that customers are always kept in the loop about delivery positions to ensure transparency. 'The waiting period is across models, for almost all the manufacturers.' Hyundai, the second biggest maker, has an equally big problem to tackle with over one lakh undelivered vehicles. 'I have never seen this kind of a situation ever in my long career,' Maruti director (sales & marketing) Shashank Srivastava says. Company MD & CEO Kenichi Ayukawa has often apologised to buyers for the delays, and top officials say that the situation is unprecedented. So, how long is the waiting list that customers are enduring across individual brands? Maruti, the countryРІР‚в„ўs biggest car maker with some of the most popular models, has a customer backlog of as many as over 2.5 lakh cars. There are waiting periods running into several months, and even a year for some, and the top models include Mahindra XUV7OO SUV, MarutiРІР‚в„ўs CNG variants, and SUVs such as HyundaiРІР‚в„ўs Creta, KiaРІР‚в„ўs Seltos, MGРІР‚в„ўs Astor, TataРІР‚в„ўs Punch, MercedesРІР‚в„ўs GLS, and AudiРІР‚в„ўs eTron electric.

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