The semiconductor crisis affects many players in the automotive industry and has led to numerous delivery delays and component shortages, forcing manufacturers to modify the equipment of their cars or ship them without certain options ordered by customers.

A new component of our cars suffers from a shortage of semiconductors: this smart keyswhich use multiple components and electronic chips to provide certain functions, such as hands-free access.

Toyota ships its cars with a “smart” key and a “regular” key

In order not to make their customers suffer delivery delayswhich will undoubtedly lead to dissatisfaction, Toyota has found a way out: instead of supplying two “smart” keys with its cars, the Japanese manufacturer will replace the second smart key with a regular one.

“As the semiconductor shortage continues, this is an interim measure to get cars to customers as quickly as possible. As for the second key, we plan to hand it over as soon as it is ready. » This is stated in the official statement of Toyota.

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Toyota keys: a precaution

In practice, the customer will receive his new car with one smart key as wellnormal key as a second key. According to the Japanese manufacturer, this measure is temporarywhich means Toyota will contact the customer later and get a second smart key.

Several months of delay however, you should wait before getting this spare key equipped with all the smart functions of the car.

The semiconductor crisis continues

The shortage of semiconductors is far behind: indeed, Toyota is not the only manufacturer that has been affected and has temporarily stopped the supply of its “smart keys”. Indeed, other manufacturers such as Audi, Mercedes or BMW face a similar problem, and recently the Bavarian manufacturer even had to remove the digital key from its catalog of options, however temporarily.

Touchscreens and digital dashboards were also affected by the semiconductor crisis: BMW or Peugeot, for example, were forced to supply certain cars without touchscreens or with an analog dashboard instead of the state-of-the-art screen their customers expected.

Japanese manufacturer Toyota has faced serious reliability issues with its new bZ4X SUV, which is subject to many recalls. https://t.co/wkEytqCreS

— AutoPlus (@AutoPlusMag) August 4, 2022