The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented public health and economic crisis. It dramatically impacted different industries, and presented an unforeseen challenge to the automotive industry and its supply chain (SC). We model a system dynamics simulation to demonstrate the behavior of a multi-echelon SC responding to different end market scenarios. The model results highlight challenges that arise for a semiconductor automotive SC not only during, but also after a disruption like the COVID-19 pandemic: strong demand dynamics which cause substantial operational consequences. The model evaluates how upstream companies in the automotive SC suffer from the disruption in terms of amplitude and duration. In order to mitigate these challenges, a close collaboration among players in the SC can increase robustness of the overall SC during unforeseen events like the pandemic.