Volkswagen announces that it will leave the German factories inactive for a longer period of time. The situation with the coronavirus does not yet allow it to open as of the previously communicated date.
European car production is largely stalled and the Volkswagen factories in Germany are no exception. Two weeks ago, Volkswagen paused things all over Europe for ‘two to three weeks’. In the meantime, the situation with the virus would be monitored to see when production can be resumed. Last week it was already decided that the work cannot continue this week. Now Volkswagen says that in Germany it will in any case not be until April 19. The terms of other factories in Europe are not yet discussed.
According to Volkswagen, an extensive package of measures is being worked on to restart production afterwards. With these measures, safety and hygiene in the factory must be guaranteed as much as possible. Volkswagen is committed to continuing production as quickly as possible. The group says it will lose about € 2 billion per week with the production stop. However, that is logically not the greatest concern.