全球微芯片短缺正威胁着国家的救护车供应。

根据美国救护车协会和救护车服务地面车辆标准认证委员会的数据，供应美国约70%救护车底盘的福特公司，由于芯片短缺，于4月中旬关闭了各工厂的生产。

美国救护车协会发言人马克·范·阿纳姆说:“如果没有这些底盘，救护车的生产速度会大大降低。”。“所以这就成了一个公共安全问题。”

底盘库存已经处于“历史低位”，原因是冠状病毒范·阿纳姆解释说，关闭制造工厂。

为了制造救护车，制造商需要首先建造一个底盘或框架，以此为基础。

范·阿纳姆说:“一辆救护车的底盘上有几十个微芯片——比普通的F-150还要多。”。

约翰·明奇洛/美联社档案

半导体芯片在纳米电子制造厂的工作台上组装和组织

他说，用“原始”底盘制造一辆救护车需要两到八个月的时间。

“一辆救护车如果今天不出发，两个月、六个月、八个月之后都无法交付，”他解释道。“所以，这是一种具有长期效应的东西。在本日历年下半年，满足特派团需求所需的车辆数量将出现实际短缺。”

在一份声明中，美国救护车协会和救护车服务认证委员会表示，“在不久的将来，一些救护车装配线很可能完全关闭。”

埃德蒙兹洞察高级经理伊万·德鲁里(Ivan Drury)在接受美国广播公司新闻采访时说，由于这场流行病，许多微芯片制造商被迫停止生产。汽车公司削减了芯片订单，其他科技公司购买了尽可能多的芯片，因为他们的销售围绕着家庭订单飙升。

德鲁里说:“这些小芯片几乎是你现在买的所有东西——从你的手机到你想让你的孩子拥有的PS5，一直到你的汽车，里面可能有数百或数千个芯片。”

乌利甲板/图片联盟通过盖蒂图像，文件

在这张2014年1月14日的档案照片中，显示了福特的标志。

这场流行病给救护车的需求增加了额外的压力。

范·阿纳姆说:“在这个COVID时代，需求主要集中在医疗保健和EMS上，救护车业务所需的第一大商品的供应问题非常非常困难。”“这将使工作更加艰难。”

汽车制造商不确定微芯片短缺和由此导致的停产会持续多久。

德鲁里说:“我们看到各种车型都出现了左右短缺。“在情况变得更糟之前，不会有任何好转。”

Global microchip shortage impacting ambulance supply

The globalmicrochip shortageis now threatening the nation's ambulance supply.

Ford, which supplies around 70% of the ambulance chassis used in the U.S., shut down production at various plants in mid-April due to the chip shortage, according to the American Ambulance Association and the Commission on Accreditation of Ambulance Services Ground Vehicle Standards.

"Without those chassis, the production of ambulances essentially slows down dramatically," American Ambulance Association Spokesman Mark Van Arnam said. "So that becomes a public safety issue."

Chassis inventories were already at "historically low levels" due tocoronavirusshutting down manufacturing plants, Van Arnam explained.

In order to make an ambulance, manufacturers need to first construct a chassis, or frame, to build it on.

"An ambulance chassis contains dozens and dozens of microchips -- more microchips than the average F-150," Van Arnam said,

He said it takes between two to eight months to manufacture an ambulance from a "raw" chassis.

"An ambulance that doesn't start today doesn't deliver two, six, eight months from now," he explained. "So, this is something that has a long-term type of effect. In the second half of this calendar year, there will be a real shortfall in the number of vehicles required to meet the demands of the mission."

In a statement, the American Ambulance Association and Commission on Accreditation of Ambulance Services said, "complete shutdowns of some ambulance assembly lines [are] highly likely in the near future."

Due to the pandemic, many microchip manufacturers were forced to halt production, Ivan Drury, senior manager of Insights at Edmunds, said in an interview with ABC News. Car companies cut back on chip orders and other technology companies bought as many chips as they could as their sales skyrocketed surrounding stay-at-home orders.

"These little chips are literally everything you buy nowadays -- everything from your cellphone, to the PS5 that you want your kid to have, all the way up to your car, which might have hundreds or thousands of chips in it," Drury said.

The pandemic adds an extra stressor on the need for ambulances.

"The demand is placed on health care and EMS specifically in this COVID era, and having a supply problem with the No. 1 commodity that's required to be in the ambulance business is very, very difficult," Van Arnam said. "That's going to make the job even tougher."

Car manufacturers aren't sure how long the microchip shortage and the resulting shutdowns will last.

"We're seeing shortages left and right, all vehicle types," Drury said. "It's not going to get any better before it gets worse."