GM removes popular heated seats option from much of lineup due to chip shortage

DETROIT — Standard Motors will briefly quit supplying heated seats, 1 of the most common solutions amid car or truck prospective buyers, in lots of of its crossovers and all but the top-stop trims of its whole-dimensions pickups starting up up coming 7 days due to the fact of the ongoing microchip shortage.

Impacted vehicles also will not be crafted with ventilated seats or a heated steering wheel till chip materials increase. But GM said it’s in a position to reinstate 3 other attributes it formerly removed to preserve chip materials, which include digital temperature displays in some pickups.

Starting off as quickly as Monday, heated and ventilated seats will no extended be set up on much more than a dozen nameplates — such as the Chevrolet Colorado, Blazer and Equinox and the GMC Canyon and Terrain — GM explained to dealers in a letter dated Friday. The features also will be removed on all Chevy Silverados and Traverses except Superior State trims and all GMC Sierras and Acadias besides Denalis.

Heated steering wheels will be removed from lots of of the exact same automobiles, as nicely as Chevy and GMC complete-size SUVs, starting Nov. 22.

The changes are anticipated to stay in put via the 2022 model year. Customers will get credits of $150 to $500 as compensation, in accordance to the letter, a copy of which was attained by Automotive News.

“Every work was made to safeguard as considerably as feasible,” GM spokesman Sabin Blake mentioned. “Which is why only selected trims are impacted.”

Heated seats are consumers’ most-desired car element, in accordance to a examine published this month by AutoPacific. Two-thirds of the 88,998 shoppers surveyed explained they required heated seats in their up coming auto. Half of the respondents explained they desired ventilated seats, which was the ninth most well-known aspect.

Automakers industrywide have idled creation strains and removed auto functions this yr mainly because of the chip lack. GM earlier taken off weather handle digital temperature displays, side blind zone notify and Super Cruise driver-help know-how on sure 2022 nameplates, but individuals capabilities are now obtainable in reaction to “a better flow of semiconductors in our offer chain,” the letter explained.

GM has resumed normal output schedules at most of its North American assembly crops.

The automaker explained it was checking out whether or not it could retrofit cars with heated and ventilated seats and heated steering wheels as sections grow to be accessible.

“By having these measures, it will enable continued production and delivery of stock to enable react to the solid consumer and vendor need for all our merchandise as the business carries on to rebound and strengthen,” the letter claimed.

A restricted selection of influenced vehicles presently have been sold to shoppers who are awaiting shipping, Blake claimed. Sellers are accountable for speaking to consumers about bought orders right away, according to the letter.