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In the face of the global epidemic, no car company can withstand such a lasting impact, even Volkswagen, which had previously said it had sufficient funds to deal with the epidemic. It has to be said that Volkswagen, the world's largest automaker by sales, has "persevered" more than most automakers, but in the face of the current environment of continuous shutdowns, Volkswagen has also begun to suspend pay, layoffs and other measures to reduce operating costs.

Volkswagen said on Thursday that it would temporarily lay off 1500 workers at its assembly plant in Tennessee from April 11 to deal with the impact of the spreading novel coronavirus epidemic, Reuters reported. Although Volkswagen said that temporary emergency leave for its production and maintenance staff is not expected to last more than four weeks, laid-off employees can only receive full pay until April 11 and can go home for recuperation.

Affected by the epidemic, Volkswagen's Tennessee assembly plant has been shut down since March 21. The plant is mainly responsible for the production of three-seat Atlas crossovers, two-seat Atlas Cross Sport crossovers and Volkswagen Passat sedans, as well as electric vehicles based on the Volkswagen MEB platform, which was expanded at the end of last year.

Although this is only the first plant for Volkswagen to announce layoffs, Volkswagen, which has the largest assembly plant in Europe, has a total of 124 factories and 617000 employees. Among them, there are 72 factories in Europe, accounting for more than half of all factories. Since early April, Volkswagen has suspended production at factories in China around the world, meaning the Volkswagen Group will be one of the worst affected by the epidemic.

According to Dr. Deiss, CEO of Volkswagen Group, a few days ago, on the current business situation of Volkswagen, Volkswagen Group's sales outside China were suspended due to the COVID-19 epidemic. But they have to pay a fixed cost of 2 billion euros (about 15.72 billion yuan) per week. If the epidemic continues to worsen, Volkswagen Group will also have to take structural measures. This includes the possibility of layoffs.

In the face of the global crisis, it is only natural for car companies to take corresponding measures to deal with the crisis. For most multinational car companies, Volkswagen has been planning layoffs for more than half a month. At present, in Europe, the United States, Japan, South Korea and other vehicle manufacturing industries, there are more than 100 automobile factories that continue to suffer heavy losses due to shutdown and stagnant sales. In the face of this environment, such as FCA Group has already carried out a wage reduction plan as early as April, and the three major Japanese automakers Toyota, Honda and Nissan will cut the wages of 32000 North American employees from the 7th to allow employees to join the government's unemployment relief program. Auto companies such as Ford, GM and Tesla, which were even later affected by the epidemic, have also announced plans for layoffs and wage cuts.

It is worth noting that the current overseas epidemic control is not yet under very effective control, and most car companies have made plans to resume work in response to the long-term suspension of production. These include Audi's plant in Hungary to resume engine production on April 14; Renault to restart plants in Balliadorid and Seville in Spain on April 15; and Daimler announced that it would resume production in Germany from April 20. However, many car companies have indicated that they will extend it to the end of April or May, including BMW and other car companies, and some have planned to resume work until June.

In the face of the continuous spread of the global epidemic, many car companies have felt layers of pressure, and it is normal to hope to return to work as soon as possible, but with the deterioration of the epidemic in the world, once they encounter a large area of infection without good isolation, there is no doubt that they will face greater losses. Secondly, it is difficult for a number of car companies to stop work at the same time in the supply chain.

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