About Five weeks of shutdown due to the coronavirus crisis, Germany’s largest car manufacturer Volkswagen has restarted production in two of its plants.
Volkswagen’s vehicle plant in Zwickau, Saxony would “cautiously resume” production of its all-electric model ID.3, according to the company, Xinhua news agency.
“We all have a historic task to accomplish,” said Thomas Ulbrich, Volkswagen brand board member for e-mobility. “That task is to protect the health of our employees and at the same time get business back on track responsibly.”
Volkswagen announced that with an initial production of 50 vehicles per day, operations were restarted “at reduced speed.” Before COVID-19, production volumes at the plant had been around three times as high.
To ensure the health of its employees, Volkswagen introduced new rules at the workplace, such as an obligation to wear mouth and nose protection when keeping the minimum distance of 1.5 meters between employees was not possible.
On Thursday, Volkswagen engine plant in the city of Chemnitz also began gradually ramping up production. Next Monday, a plant in Dresden would follow with production at reduced capacity, according to the German carmaker.
Another major German car maker Daimler had already restarted production in some selected plants earlier this week.
