VDue to the corona-related restrictions in China, olkswagen has stopped the assembly lines in one plant and is producing less elsewhere. “Production at the Chengdu plant was temporarily stopped in connection with the current corona wave,” a spokesman told the Reuters news agency on Monday. The factory is located in southwest China.
Two production lines at the Changchun plant are also affected. In the other plants, production is currently running as stable as possible. “Due to the volatility of the situation, however, short-term changes in the operation of individual production facilities cannot be ruled out,” added the spokesman.
The Chinese Covid lockdowns are also causing difficulties for the car manufacturer BMW AG with regard to its business. “In China, the lockdowns are not decreasing at the moment, they are increasing,” said BMW CEO Oliver Zipse at an event in front of journalists last Friday. “I’m concerned about how we’ll come out of the lockdown situation in the coming quarters. There is no indication that China has a solution.”
China is of great importance for the business of car manufacturers such as Volkswagen and BMW. Between January and September of this year, VW sold around 40 percent of its passenger cars in the country, while BMW sold around 34 percent.