The Volkswagen Group won’t be resuming production at its China joint venture factories as scheduled, as the Coronavirus continues to impact economic activity.
SAIC Volkswagen Automotive will postpone production by 7 days until February 17 (except for one Shanghai plant which will restart on the 10th), while FAW-Volkswagen’s Tianjin plant will also stay closed until the 17th.
The German carmaker initially blamed the limited travel options available for its employees and stated that its supply chains were in the early stages of re-starting after production had been halted for the Chinese national holidays at the end of last month. However, those delays were made even worse by the spread of the Coronavirus, reports Autonews Europe.
Read Also: Facelifted Genesis G80 Postponed Again As Hyundai Idles Production Over Coronavirus
Other car companies are also sticking to a February 10 restart plan for their Chinese production, such as Daimler and Ford, while Honda will wait until February 13 to restart its three plants in Wuhan – last week, the Japanese brand said that they faced no supply chain issues.
Nissan meanwhile is considering waiting until sometime after February 10 to restart production at its Dongfeng joint venture, while the PSA Group’s three Wuhan factories (which are run alongside Dongfeng), will stay closed until February 14.
As for Toyota and BMW, they will wait until February 16 and the 17th, respectively, before restarting production.
Last week, Fiat Chrysler said that production at one of its European plants could also be impacted “within two to four weeks”, whereas Hyundai was already forced to suspend production in South Korea, as the virus disrupted its supply chain.
