The humble wire harness, a cheap component that bundles cables together, has become an unlikely scourge of the auto industry. Some predict it could hasten the downfall of combustion cars.
Supplies of the auto part were choked by the war in Ukraine, which is home to a significant chunk of the world's production, with wire harnesses made there fitted in hundreds of thousands of new vehicles every year.
These low-tech and low-margin parts — made from wire, plastic and rubber with lots of low-cost manual labor — may not command the kudos of microchips and motors, yet cars can't be built without them.
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