FCA: cutthroat forerunner
After all, there's a lot of blood from Italy flowing through the group, and FCA is the most sensitive of the three major North American manufacturers in terms of their response to the outbreak. About half a week ago, FCA announced it was shifting capacity to the production of protective masks to support local paramedics, police and firefighters in North America.
But didn't it say that the local plant would be shut down until the end of the month? FCA CEO Mike Manley quickly explained to employees in an internal group e-mail that the plan also included a revamping of its China plant, which is ultimately aiming to produce 1 million masks a month.
Well, it's not impossible in theory, but at a time when everyone's on the edge of their seat, it doesn't seem right to have overseas factories supporting the home front with supplies. ......
General Motors: Wartime system is on
As the most powerful auto company in North America, GM has never been able to help out when the U.S. needed supplies. has never done much to contribute when the U.S. needed supplies. Yesterday, CEO Mary Barra announced that GM would conduct a "World War II-style mobilization" and called on car companies like Ford, FCA and Tesla to go into a wartime-like mode, prioritizing production of supplies to fight the epidemic.
For its part, GM has already launched a partnership with Canadian company Ventec to ramp up production of 200,000 medical ventilators at its Indiana plant. And that's not all of its "Project V."
The wartime system called for by GM, as seen in the World War II era, once opened up a highly efficient model of "technology ****sharing and task-sharing according to production capacity," and the wartime production of Willys Jeeps with varying degrees of detail was a product of that model. If the North American car companies could be re-twisted, then they could take a lot of pressure off local material production -- assuming, of course, that liberals think about more than just their own pocketbooks.
Ford: Thinking differently
Ford's big-picture view seems to be stronger than the first two's at the moment: they've chosen to partner with companies including 3M and GE?Healthcare, providing them with expertise in the areas of large-scale manufacturing and engineering to assist in expanding the production capacity of these medical device companies. That's not a bad idea: Since specialized companies exist, they should be able to share their expertise and take advantage of Ford's own experience in manufacturing, rather than just taking up each other's manpower to guide Ford in shifting capacity.
On the other hand, Ford itself is actively preparing production supplies to reach a production capacity of 100,000 masks a week as soon as possible. At the same time, Ford is also using its own 3D printing equipment to manufacture protective masks and other ancillary equipment parts. In addition, in terms of "emergency", Ford has also purchased 165,000 N95 masks from China, all three sets of measures.
Tesla: A high-profile turnaround
Besides giving lessons, what Tesla is doing right now is largely similar to what Ford is doing, with the idea of turning around supplies and buying spot emergency supplies (perhaps they've thought about doing exactly the same thing as Ford, but their shallow credentials have kept them from doing so).
Considering that Model?Y deliveries have just begun, it's not a good idea to force Tesla to immediately switch to supplies again, and Tesla's own performance is confirming that: they look more keen to buy stock for the time being. In addition to sending more than 100,000 masks to medical centers across the U.S., Tesla has also bought a thousand respirators from China -- but Musk is starting to think about switching to respirators.
For a variety of reasons, Tesla has appeared more or less high-profile in the news than several other conventional car companies in North America. But I'm afraid it's going to have to wait a bit longer for it to mobilize its own production capacity to produce supplies.
Nissan: Many hands make light work
Nissan doesn't have a huge amount of energy compared to the three "skinny camels" in North America, but it's doing its part. In the UK, for example, Nissan has begun assisting a consortium set up for the purpose of prevention and control (which includes McLaren and Meggitt, the maker of oxygen systems for airplanes), to build the respirators needed to combat the outbreak as quickly as possible.
Normal logic would suggest that one of them, McLaren, would presumably be involved in the engineering (it's one of the old favorites, after all), Meggitt would still be in charge of the oxygen supply part of the process, and Nissan would be in charge of speeding up the overall manufacturing process of the respirators. According to the plan, this organization will begin the task of manufacturing 30,000 respirators within a month.
Writing in conclusion
In the face of this human catastrophe, there are no winners, no matter how much East and West dig at each other. In the face of danger, the best response is undoubtedly to unite all forces and fight back with the "wartime state" advocated by the general public. Here we might as well imagine, if this epidemic can make pure liberalism is generally reflected, then by virtue of the unity of the traditional car companies to overcome it, will usher in a wave of darkness again?
This article comes from the authors of the Motor Home Car Family, and does not represent the viewpoint position of the Motor Home.