According to data released by the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (EAMA), new car registrations in the European passenger car market fell 7.3 percent year-on-year to 2,202,010 units, the worst situation in the European auto market since 2013.
Meanwhile, market data analyst LMC?Automotive cut its U.S. auto sales forecast for 2020 by 300,000 units to 16.5 million, which would be the lowest sales level for the U.S. auto market since 2014.
Under the epidemic, the European and American car markets have been hit harder than ever before.
No car company can be left alone, and some multinational car companies have already been affected to varying degrees when China was ravaged by the epidemic. As the epidemic spreads, the scope of this impact is continuing to expand, the automobile manufacturing industry will come to a standstill, and the task of car companies in various countries has shifted from production to fighting the epidemic.
U.S. Big Three unite to fight epidemic
On March 15, the Big Three of U.S. car companies, General Motors, Ford and Aft Chrysler, announced that they had formed a coronavirus task force with the United Auto Workers to improve protection measures for manufacturing workers and warehouse employees and to tighten control of factory outbreaks.
Photo credit: General Motors
The three car companies are said to be working together to screen visitors, increase cleaning and disinfecting of public **** areas, and take a range of isolation and protective measures for symptomatic people and related contacts.
In a joint statement, the three automakers said, "This is an unprecedented and volatile situation and the working group will take swift action as well as extensive precautions. We will work together to ensure the safety and health of our employees."
Beginning Monday, Ford plants and businesses around the world have asked non-frontline workers and employees in key positions to work from home. And General Motors has made the same telecommuting requirement for its employees. It should be noted that neither Ford nor GM has included its Chinese companies or production-line workers in its telecommuting requirements.
Meanwhile, Ford pulled its car ads across the United States and replaced them with anti-epidemic ads. Ford spokesman Mark Truby said he didn't think any of Ford's major plants would close completely, even though the situation is quite fluid at the moment. GM and Fiat Chrysler, for their part, expressed the same attitude.
While the U.S. auto giants had previously said they would not shut down production, pressure from U.S. labor unions and concerns about the risk of spreading the outbreak led the three major U.S. automakers to decide on March 19 to close their North American plants for the time being until March 30th.
European car companies in a wave of production stoppages, in the United Kingdom car companies proposed to switch to the production of medical supplies
March 14, Italy's ultra-luxury sports car maker Ferrari announced a two-week shutdown of production for the sake of worker safety.
On March 16, Italian sports car maker Ferrari announced it would suspend production at its plants in Maneraro and Modena. Lamborghini, whose entire production capacity is in Italy, also announced that it was halting its Italian production lines and expected to resume production on March 25th.
Photo credit: Ferrari
On March 17, Germany's Volkswagen Group, the world's largest automaker, also announced that it would be shutting down all of its European plants for 2-3 weeks.
Just on the same day, two French carmakers, Renault and PSA, also announced production suspensions. Renault will close its 12 plants in France, affecting 18,000 people. A day earlier, Renault had closed 2 of its plants in Spain.
According to Gaijin Auto statistics, Volkswagen Group, PSA, FCA, Nissan-Renault alliance and other European head automobile groups will close their factories all over Europe, and the number of car brands involved has reached at least 23. For a time, European car companies have been caught in a wave of production stoppages.
In addition to the car factory, Brembo (Brembo), Marelli (Magneti? Marelli) and other European head of auto parts suppliers also need to stop production.
During the plant closures, Volkswagen Group said it would work via conference calls and videoconferences, quarantine employees who had traveled to the infected areas, require them to work from home and impose restrictions on travel.
British car companies appear to have been more aggressive in their efforts to fight the epidemic.
According to a report by the British media outlet Autocar, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been discussing with British car companies, including Ford, Honda and Rolls-Royce, the possibility of temporarily converting their production lines into medical equipment such as face masks and respirators needed by the NHS (Britain's National Health System). The news has been confirmed by Ford and Honda, which have said they are making preparations to be approached about the work.
Photo credit: Ford
Will China be a lifesaver
With the global epidemic worsening, the situation in China is gradually improving.
As of March 18, Hubei has zeroed out new confirmed cases, new suspected cases, and existing suspected cases, and the country has cured a total of 70,420 discharged cases.
As China's fourth-largest automobile manufacturing industry base in Hubei, Hubei has more than 1,500 automobile manufacturing enterprises above the scale of the annual production of more than 2 million units of automobiles, accounting for 8.8% of China's output. Wuhan, the center of this epidemic area, has seven vehicle companies, 12 automobile assembly plants, more than 500 parts and components companies, 14 automobile research and development institutes at the provincial level or above, with an annual automobile output of more than one million.
At present, enterprises in Hubei have resumed production and work one after another, said Xin Guobin, minister of industry and information technology, at a news conference held at the State Council office, adding that Hubei's auto parts industry will be supported to prioritize the resumption of work and production to alleviate the shortfall of parts and components faced by global automobiles due to the impact of the epidemic.
Foreign automakers have been importing parts from China to cope with the possible supply shortage. A few days ago, a China Eastern Airlines cargo flight carried 80.45 tons of auto parts from Pudong Airport to Chicago. General Motors has used 16 chartered flights to transport parts from China to its production bases in North America, Brazil and Argentina.
In addition to air transportation, maritime logistics is also the main way of multinational car companies to transport spare parts. It is understood that since the outbreak of the epidemic, Shanghai Haitong International Automobile Terminal *** counted 94 berthing operations, completed loading and unloading of 58,378 vehicles, completed the shipment of 30,000 sets of parts to Thailand and 2,000 sets of parts shipped to India.
Importing parts from China would ease the crisis of supply cuts by global car companies, but Chinese car companies are also currently facing a shortage of parts to fill demand. Receiving further orders from around the world would inevitably increase the pressure on production. In addition, charter flights are expensive, which will increase the production costs of car companies; the slower speed of shipping will increase the time costs of car companies. Either way is not a long-term solution. It is hoped that Europe and the United States can learn from China's experience in fighting the epidemic and complete the resumption of work and production as soon as possible.
This article comes from the author of the automobile home car family number, does not represent the views of the automobile home position.