Volkswagen is the latest car maker to - cautiously - announce the restart of vehicle production in Europe. Initial prep work for a production re-start began at its Brunswick and Kassel factories on the 6th of April.
That was followed by the components plants in Salzgitter, Chemnitz and Hanover, as well as the Polish plants, from April 14, to safeguard component supplies for vehicle production in China.
Rolling restarts from 20th of April
Next on the list will be Zwickau in Germany and Bratislava in Slovakia, which are due to start making cars again next week, on the 20th of April. It's hoped that there will then be a rolling restart at other factories, in Germany, Portugal, Spain, Russia, South Africa, and both North and South America, from the 27th of April onwards.
Volkswagen emphasises that this is a cautious restart, not an all-hands-to-the-pumps effort. With German Chancellor Angela Merkel only this week pointing out how fragile the apparent flattening of COVID-19 infections is, Volkswagen says that it will be taking the utmost care to ensure no transmission of the virus in its factories.
For the moment, the factories will re-open on a short-time working basis, and assuming everything goes smoothly, that process will slowly roll out towards a return to full production.
Comprehensive catalogue of protection measures
Ralf Brandstätter, COO of the Volkswagen brand, said: "With the decisions by the federal and state governments in Germany and the loosening of restrictions in other European states, conditions have been established for the gradual resumption of production. Volkswagen has prepared intensively for these steps over the past three weeks. In addition to developing a comprehensive catalogue of measures for the protection of our employees' health, we have also forged ahead with the re-establishment of our supply chains."
Volkwagen says that the speed of the production restart will be dictated by availability of parts and components, and the demand for cars in individual markets. The overriding priority, though, is the health of employees and the wider community, and the continued containment of the virus.
Andreas Tostmann, Board Member of the Volkswagen brand responsible for Production and Logistics, said: "We are resuming production and logistics with a staged approach in a well-organized way. The health of our employees has the highest priority. We are providing safe workplaces and the maximum possible level of health protection with a 100-point plan. In full awareness of our responsibility, we are ensuring that the economy regains momentum and cars once again leave the plants and reach our dealers and customers."
Bernd Osterloh, Chairman of the Works Council, said: "We have never experienced a situation like this before. However, I know that our colleagues are fantastically well motivated to start work again. Production is resumed after each works holiday, which is why we have considerable experience with this process. In the light of the pandemic, we need to adapt our routines. One answer is our new agreement on health protection. With about 100 measures, we are keeping the risk of infection at Volkswagen as low as possible. This will set a standard for the industry. But we need to be realistic: at the beginning, the new procedures will give rise to queries and reservations on the part of our colleagues. We have never developed, produced and sold vehicles under these conditions before. This is why I expect our managers to ensure that employees are thoroughly familiar with the new procedures. Taking the time to answer questions is more important now than daily production figures."
No new infections at Volkswagen's Chinese plants
Thomas Schmall, CEO of the Volkswagen Group Components brand: "The step-by-step reopening of our plants was important in order to safeguard supplies to overseas locations. Now we need to restart the entire production network while taking comprehensive protective measures and to supply all the vehicle plants of the various brands with components. The same high requirements for the health protection of our employees apply to all our plants."
There's good news from China, where Volkswagen reports that none of its employees at its factories there - 32 out of 33 of which have now been re-opened - have reported any cases of new infections.
Volkswagen will also restart production of vans and commercial vehicles, at its factories in Hannover and in Poland at Poznań and Września. Josef Baumert, Board of Management Member for Production and Logistics at VWCV: "We are pleased that we are shortly going to be able to start up our production operation again on a staggered, step-by-step basis. Protecting our employees' health has absolute priority in this process. We have developed a comprehensive package of measures for this and are already working intensively in small teams on preparing the plants, in order, for example, to be able to maintain appropriate distances, to implement higher hygiene standards and, where necessary, to provide protective equipment. We are also continuing to watch the situation very closely. The dialogue and the approach taken within the Group, as well as, for example, the recommendations of the Robert Koch Institute continue to play a key part in how we proceed."
"It is a good signal for the economy and the public, if we are able to show a way forward out of the shutdown. For us as the Works Council too the health of our colleagues is the core focus. We will therefore be watching the entire development in connection with COVID-19 extremely closely. With the factory agreement endorsed by the entire works council we have created a good framework for the resumption of production in Hannover, reconciling economic interests and the protection of the workforce", says Bertina Murkovic, Chair of the VWCV Works Council.