MADRID – Renault CEO Luca de Meo said that the semiconductor shortage and rising cost for raw materials will push up car prices, the Spanish economic newspaper Expansion reported.
"Prices will rise even more in the coming 12 months," de Meo told the newspaper in an interview published Thursday, as chip makers are taking advantage of the leverage that scarcity is giving them.
Building competitive chip manufacturing capacities in Europe would take more than 10 years, de Meo said.
De Meo is the former CEO of Volkswagen's Spanish brand Seat, and Renault has a major manufacturing presence in Spain.
Car prices are already rising as automakers focus on building more expensive models due to the lack of chips, de Meo told Expansion. Automakers reported record profits in the first half of the year despite the chip shortage on sales of such higher-margin models.
On Friday BMW said it was increasing its profit forecast for the year because of higher pricing.
Another factor in rising car prices are increased costs of steel, gas, energy, copper and aluminum, de Meo said.
