AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)03/23 Report--

With the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic in the United States, ventilators and other medical equipment will face a shortage of supplies. According to COVID-19 data released by Johns Hopkins University, as of 6: 00 p.m. eastern time on March 22nd, there were 32717 confirmed cases by COVID-19 in the United States. At present, the United States ranks third in the number of confirmed cases in the world, second only to China and Italy. Among them, New York accounted for nearly half of the total number of confirmed cases in the United States, and the number of confirmed cases reached 15777 on the 22nd.

According to foreign media reports, US President Trump said that Ford, GM and Tesla have been approved by the US government to allow them to produce much-needed ventilators and other medical equipment during the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Earlier, the mayor of New York tweeted that "ventilators are urgently needed" and hoped that Tesla could lend a helping hand and contribute to the shortage of medical equipment. Tesla CEO Musk said on Twitter that Tesla Electric car Company and SpaceX Space Exploration Company have started producing ventilators and discussed with Medtronic, a US medical technology company, about the technical aspects of switching to ventilator production. About 1200 ventilators will be distributed within this week, but the delivery, installation and operation of ventilators are the most difficult parts.

GM says it is already studying how to make ventilators in an effort to help the United States in difficult times. Ford said it would do everything it can to help the government, including the production of ventilators and other equipment, and has held preliminary discussions with the U. S. government on the feasibility of the plan.

In addition to American car companies, a number of European car companies have also joined the ranks of switching to medical equipment such as ventilators, including Jaguar Land Rover, Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Rolls-Royce, McLaren and other car companies have expressed their willingness to switch to medical equipment to alleviate the shortage of supply. On March 19th Ferrari and FCA said they were in talks with the country's largest ventilator manufacturer.

After the outbreak of the epidemic, the supply of masks in China was extremely short. A number of car companies, including SAIC General Motors Wuling, BYD, GAC GROUP and other Chinese car companies, took the lead in switching to medical supplies such as masks and disinfectants to support the fight against the epidemic.

On Feb. 6, SAIC GM Wuling announced that it would switch to production of masks by revamping its production line, which is expected to produce more than 1.7 million masks a day. On March 16, SAIC GM Wuling announced that the national free application channel for "Wuling masks" was officially opened, and more than 6 million masks are expected to be distributed to alleviate the shortage of masks among the general public.

BYD announced on February 8 that it would aid delivery of masks and disinfection gels, and completed mass production on February 17. On March 12, both the BYD mask production line and the disinfection gel production line were at full capacity, with a daily production capacity of 5 million and 300000 bottles, respectively.

In order to ease the tight supply of masks, GAC GROUP also transferred to mask production, achieving mass production of masks in less than half a month. The production and delivery of 41 mask machines were completed on March 9. at present, the daily output has reached 600000, with a cumulative output of nearly 10 million.

In addition to switching to medical equipment, factory closure has also become the main way to prevent the spread of the epidemic, and a number of car companies have announced that they will stop production in the short term.

On March 16, FCA said on Monday that most of its plants in Europe would stop production until March 27 because novel coronavirus's epidemic disrupted factory operations. In addition, Ferrari also announced on the same day that its factories in Maranello and Modena would suspend production until March 27.

Volkswagen Group Chairman Deiss said on March 17 that due to the spread of novel coronavirus's epidemic, Volkswagen's Seattle plant in Spain, Volkswagen brand Setubal in Portugal, Bratislava plant in Slovakia, Lamborghini plant in Italy and Ducati plant will stop production by the end of this week, and is preparing to further close plants in Europe and Germany, possibly for two to three weeks.

On March 18, BMW CEO Zipze announced that production at BMW plants across Europe would be suspended until April 19, and a plant in South Africa would be closed.

Tesla has decided to suspend production at the Fremont vehicle assembly plant from March 24th.

On March 20, Daimler said it would suspend production at most of its plants in the United States, which is initially expected to be two weeks. A spokesman for the company said the shutdown would begin gradually next week in order to help control the spread of the epidemic.

The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 outside China has risen to 210644, according to the latest data released by the World Health Organization on the 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada Capital Markets predicts that the knock-on effect of the novel coronavirus epidemic on consumer demand could lead to a 16 per cent drop in global car production in 2020, while US car sales are expected to fall by 20 per cent.

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