Recently, although the domestic epidemic has not ended, it is indeed gradually returning to normal. In contrast, the news from other countries and regions is not optimistic, for example, the United States seems to be getting worse.
On March 27th, Trump tweeted angrily at GM, urging them to reopen the factory to build ventilators, using words with strong personal feelings, and finally "criticized" Ford. Prior to this, a tweet was a unilateral accusation against GM, saying that GM had promised to provide 4, ventilators, but later changed its mind and said that it could only provide 6, ventilators.
The story goes like this. Before that, GM planned to cooperate with Ventec, a medical equipment manufacturer, to restart its abandoned Ohio factory to produce ventilators, which cost about $1 billion. After comprehensive consideration, GM abandoned this plan at the last minute and prepared to start a smaller and lower-cost production plan in Indiana.
It seems that there is nothing wrong with it, but GM closed the factory in Ohio. He had made several lip service with GM because of this incident, so Trump said on Twitter that GM's closing the factory was "stupid".
GM immediately issued a statement, saying that they have been working closely with Ventec and have been working around the clock in production. Ford also followed the statement, saying that it has signed a cooperation agreement with GE Medical and is pushing forward the production of ventilators as quickly as possible.
Relatively speaking, Ford's progress is more remarkable. Just the day before yesterday, Ford officially announced that GE Medical would authorize Ford to use its partner Airon's GE/Airon? A-E ventilator product design permission, and will provide its clinical and technical experience. The innovative design of this ventilator uses air pressure to work without electricity, which can meet the needs of treating most patients in COVID-19.
Among them, Airon Company is a small private enterprise specializing in high-tech pneumatic life support products, and Ford Motor Company will give full play to its engineering and manufacturing capabilities, and can rapidly increase production according to demand. At present, its plan is to produce 1,5 units by the end of April, 12, units by the end of May, 5, units by July 4, and 3, units per month thereafter.
It is worthy of recognition that car companies switched to masks to save the country and the people at the head of the epidemic, and there are precedents. For example, Wuling, BYD, GAC and other manufacturers have stabilized their mask production capacity, and BYD has become one of the largest mask manufacturers in the world with a daily production capacity of 5 million medical masks.
At the same time, Lamborghini's factory even announced that it would switch to masks, with a daily production capacity of about 1,. SEAT also announced that it would use the motor of automobile wiper to transform and produce simple ventilators.
But for car companies, it is relatively easy to switch to masks, and it is much more difficult to switch to ventilators. In addition to the difficulties in medical production license, production costs and technical barriers cannot be overcome by automobile manufacturers in a short time, so it is understandable why GM abandoned its original plan because of huge costs, and why both it and Ford chose to cooperate with giant companies in the medical industry.
medical companies provide technical support, while car companies are only responsible for manufacturing, because only in this way can we meet the urgent needs during the epidemic in a short time.
On the other hand, it is easy to understand that only these two local manufacturers can do this in the United States, including the factors of cost and partners. Other brands' factories in the United States can't afford this responsibility, and basically they can only choose to postpone their work and reduce their salaries.
For example:
Mercedes-Benz factory will stop working until April 6
Honda and Subaru factories will stop working until April 7
BMW, Hyundai and Kia factories will stop working until April 13
Volkswagen and FCA factories will stop working until April 14
Toyota factories will stop working until April 2
In addition to the above manufacturers with definite dates, GM in the United States.
As of yesterday, Ford has reported the death of three employees due to the COVID-19 epidemic. The shutdown is expected to bring about a loss of about 8 billion US dollars to Ford, while FCA announced a 2% salary reduction for all employees. CEO? Manley himself cut his salary by 5%.
In any case, it is hoped that the global manufacturing industry will resume as soon as possible. For example, in China, in addition to several independent manufacturers who have already switched to masks, the factories of joint ventures have also resumed work on a large scale.
The latest news is that BMW Brilliance Tiexi new factory announced the start of construction yesterday. ), Dongfeng Honda in Wuhan has also announced its resumption of work, which is really encouraging.
In the face of a sudden epidemic, productivity is fighting capacity. I hope this epidemic will end as soon as possible, and the global automobile manufacturing industry can "take off the mask" and breathe freely.
The writer of this article is the Kicking Car Gang? Liu Jianxing
This article comes from the author of Chejia, car home, and does not represent car home's standpoint.