If the epidemic was just a China thing before February, it's now more of a worldwide problem that needs to be solved urgently.
European automakers:
The sudden storm swept through much of the world in just a few months without warning, dramatically affecting everything from people's daily commutes to corporate production. According to data released by the European Automobile Manufacturers Association, new car registrations in the European market were down 7.1 percent to just 2.2 million units, the worst figure since 2013.
Lotus-Evjia
On March 14, Italian luxury sports car maker Ferrari announced a two-week production shutdown for worker safety.
On March 17th, Germany's Volkswagen Group, the world's largest automaker, announced it would shut down all of its European plants for 2-3 weeks. During the shutdown, it will work via conference calls and video conferences, quarantine employees who have traveled to infected areas, require employees to run jobs from home, and place restrictions on travel.
On the same day, French car companies Renault and PSA also announced shutdowns, with Renault closing 12 of its plants in France, affecting 18,000 people. The day before, Renault had closed two plants in Spain.
Ferrari's delayed delivery notices circulating on the internet
And British carmakers seem to be more aggressive than their other European counterparts.
According to a report by British media outlet Autocar, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been discussing with British car companies, including Ford, Honda and Rolls-Royce, about the possibility of temporarily converting their production lines to produce medical equipment such as masks and ventilators needed by the NHS (Britain's National Health System). The news has been confirmed by Ford and Honda, which said they were in the process of approaching the company for this work, as the last large-scale conversion of car companies to produce other equipment was during the World War II era.
Rolls-Royce Phantom
In addition, Brembo (Brembo), Marelli (Magneti? Marelli) and other well-known parts suppliers also need to stop production.
American car companies:
No coincidence, and has always boasted of the United States of America as the world's beacon of civilization, but also on the 11th ambiguously admitted, before the new type of influenza infection deaths of people who may have the new coronavirus patients of the fact, at the same time subject to Trump's previous declaration of a national emergency, the ban on going out with the stores to stop operating the situation continues to be exaggerated.
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
Japanese and U.S. automotive companies such as U.S. auto giants General Motors Corp. and Toyota both announced on March 18 that they were suspending production in North America. The hope is to use the move to prevent the expansion of the new coronavirus infection. New car production in the U.S. will be temporarily reduced by about 80 percent compared with previous years.
General Motors, Ford Motor and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) will stop operations at all of their U.S., Mexican and Canadian vehicle and parts plants from 19 to 30. Toyota's shutdown will be from 23 to 24 and Honda's from 23 to 30. Nissan is March 20 to April 6, the longest shutdown period. By the end of March, U.S. auto production will be reduced by about 80 percent...?
Chevrolet-Malibu
And it's worth noting that despite the fact that these giant companies have made instructions to stop production and work to ask their employees to do their work at home, the standard of this request is not used in the Chinese companies and the workers on the production line, whether it's General Motors or Ford.
China Update:
While the world is reeling from the outbreak, there's no question that the situation in China is improving dramatically.
In Hubei, for example, where the outbreak was most severe, the number of new cases, new suspected cases and existing suspected cases have all been zeroed out.
At present, enterprises in Hubei have resumed 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 parts and components industry will be supported to prioritize the resumption of work in order to alleviate the shortfall of parts and components faced by global automobiles due to the impact of the epidemic.
And multinational car companies do, GM alone has used 16 chartered planes to transport parts produced in China to its production bases in North America, Brazil and Argentina, Shanghai Haitong International Automobile Terminal is **** counted 94 times to complete the berthing operation.
Summary:
Contrasted with the poor response of the countries in the early stages, China's fight against the epidemic is undoubtedly a textbook demonstration, and it seems that China's position as the world's factory is still firmly unshakeable, but the chartered flights to transport the way more increased costs, and so that the domestic car companies are also faced with a shortage of spare parts, the United States and Europe need to address the root cause of the problem. The problem.
And the way the multinational giants treat their employees differently from one country to another is not encouraging, and perhaps will only change if, for example, domestic car makers such as Link continue to win championships.
This article was written by the author of Automotive Home, and does not represent the views of Automotive Home.