Since temporarily shutting down their productions plants as a means of preventing the COVID-19 spread, the plants of the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand will now gradually restart production.

“We are resuming production and logistics with a staged approach in a well-organized way. The health of our employees has the highest priority. We are providing safe workplaces and the maximum possible level of health protection with a 100-point plan,” Andreas Tostmann, Board Member of the Volkswagen brand responsible for Production and Logistics, said.

“In full awareness of our responsibility, we are ensuring that the economy regains momentum and cars once again leave the plants and reach our dealers and customers.”

The first phase will cover the resumption of production at the plants in Zwickau and Bratislava (Slovakia) starting from April 27. The other plants in Germany and in Portugal, Spain, Russia and the USA are also to restart production in the week from April 27. Subsequently, production will be resumed successively in South Africa, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico by May.

“With the decisions by the federal and state governments in Germany and the loosening of restrictions in other European states, conditions have been established for the gradual resumption of production," Volkswagen COO Ralf Brandstätter said. 

" Volkswagen has prepared intensively for these steps over the past three weeks. In addition to developing a comprehensive catalogue of measures for the protection of our employees’ health, we have also forged ahead with the re-establishment of our supply chains," the executive assured. 

Currently, there are a handful of workers who work short term at the Volkswagen plants in Germany. However, the number of employees affected by short time working will be successively reduced in line with the resumption of production.

Volkswagen iterates that the safety of their employees remain their top priority. Andreas Tostmann, Board Member of the Volkswagen brand responsible for Production and Logistics, said: Andreas Tostmann, Board Member of the Volkswagen brand responsible for Production and Logistics, said:

Bernd Osterloh, Chairman of the Works Council, said: “We have never experienced a situation like this before. However, I know that our colleagues are fantastically well motivated to start work again. Production is resumed after each works holiday, which is why we have considerable experience with this process. In the light of the pandemic, we need to adapt our routines. One answer is our new agreement on health protection. With about 100 measures, we are keeping the risk of infection at Volkswagen as low as possible. This will set a standard for the industry. But we need to be realistic: at the beginning, the new procedures will give rise to queries and reservations on the part of our colleagues. We have never developed, produced and sold vehicles under these conditions before. This is why I expect our managers to ensure that employees are thoroughly familiar with the new procedures. Taking the time to answer questions is more important now than daily production figures.”

Volkswagen Group Components had already started to resume production step-by-step at its plants in Brunswick and Kassel from April 6, followed by the Components plants in Salzgitter, Chemnitz and Hanover, as well as the Polish plants, from April 14, to safeguard component supplies for vehicle production in China.

Thomas Schmall, CEO of the Volkswagen Group Components brand said, “The step-by-step reopening of our plants was important in order to safeguard supplies to overseas locations."

" Now we need to restart the entire production network while taking comprehensive protective measures and to supply all the vehicle plants of the various brands with components. The same high requirements for the health protection of our employees apply to all our plants," Schmall noted. 

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