AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)03/19 Report--

With the spread of COVID-19 abroad, the number of confirmed cases has increased, and medical equipment such as ventilators have become in short supply. In response to the COVID-19 epidemic, a number of US car companies are considering switching to medical equipment such as ventilators, including electric car company Tesla.

According to foreign media reports, General Motors and Ford, the three major auto giants in the United States, said a few days ago that they were discussing with the US government plans to switch to medical equipment such as ventilators in response to the COVID-19 virus outbreak. Spokesmen for both GM and Ford said they were studying how to switch to ventilators and said the company would do everything it could to help the government produce more ventilators and other medical equipment.

However, GM did not reassemble or modify the equipment currently used to produce cars to produce ventilators, but chose to use some additional areas for ventilator production, according to people familiar with the matter. it means that ventilator capacity cannot be maximized. Earlier, GM, Ford and FCA agreed that the United Auto Workers (UAW) had asked the three companies to suspend production at all North American plants to protect the health and safety of workers.

The reason is that on the morning of March 18, an employee at Ford's assembly plant in Michigan was diagnosed with COVID-19, so that the plant was shut down. GM also said it would systematically close factories in North America until at least March 30, according to the union plan.

Due to the rapid spread of COVID-19 's epidemic, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (Andrew Cuomo) said on the 19th that the local area is extremely short of medical equipment such as ventilators. At present, the state has only 3000 ICU beds with ventilators, but according to the demand, another 37000 beds with ventilators are expected to be needed.

To this end, some netizens asked on Tesla CEO Musk's social platform whether Tesla would consider switching to a ventilator. Mr Musk said: if there is a shortage, Tesla will produce ventilators. Tesla can produce cars with advanced HVAC systems, and SpaceX can produce spacecraft equipped with life support systems. It is not difficult to produce ventilators, but they cannot be produced immediately.

Due to the intensification of the epidemic and the government ban, about 7500 people at Tesla's factory in Fremont will suspend work and go home to wait, and Tesla also made the decision to take unpaid leave. Although California issued a ban on March 16, requiring residents to stay at home from the early hours of the 17th until April 7. However, since the Fremont plant in Tesla, Calif., is not a key business as defined in the Health Act, the plant will maintain a minimum basic operation of about 2500 people.

In fact, in the current national disaster, as the country's major leading enterprises have the obligation to help the country carry out more relief material production, in order to cope with the current impact of the COVID-19 virus outbreak. After all, in the severe period of the epidemic in China, many car companies, such as Wuling and BYD, switched to medical substances one after another in order to solve the situation that "one thing is difficult to find."

Although switching to medical substances will reduce the production capacity of the original pillar industries, in view of the current situation, increasing the number of local epidemic prevention and control and medical facilities and realizing the recovery of the local market as soon as possible is the main goal.

In addition, the British government has sought help from carmakers including Ford, Honda, Rolls-Royce and Jaguar Land Rover to discuss whether their production lines can be used to switch to medical devices, including ventilators. Ford is considering how to help, and both Jaguar and Toyota have responded to requests from the UK.

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