Car makers suspend production as coronavirus fears mount
Considering the latest developments on the COVID-19 outbreak in the country, many carmakers have taken certain additional measures. Toyota Kirloskar Motors has temporarily halted production in its plants in Bidadi, Karnataka, Hyundai its factory in Chennai, and Maruti Suzuki its factories in Haryana till further announcement.
Additionally, work at Maruti’s research and development centre at Rohtak is also slated to shut down by March 24, while Toyota has also ordered all its employees in its Regional SBUs (Strategic Business Units) in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bangalore to work from home.
Meanwhile, Honda Cars India has suspended operations at both its manufacturing plants in Great Noida (UP) and Tapukara (Rajasthan) till March 31, saying the brand’s associates working in corporate offices, including zonal and regional locations for all functions will primarily work from home, except for those involved in running essential services that require physical presence or minimal staffing for a few critical activities while abiding by the government regulations.
Hitting close to home
As Pune, the home base of evo India has been witnessing a steady rise in the number of cases, manufacturing plants for Mahindra and Mahindra, Tata Motors and Skoda Auto Volkswagen India (all of which are in Chakan, an industrial suburb) and FCA India, (their facility is in Ranjangaon, approximately 50km from Pune) have all decided to stop production. The decision may hit the Volkswagen Groups’s India operations especially hard, considering the current shutdown comes on the back of successive shutdowns (October-November 2019 and December 2019-January 2020) which at that time were attributed to several reasons, including a slowdown in exports as well as domestic sales, and the discontinuation of both the Ameo subcompact sedan and of small-capacity diesel engines (with the advent of the BS6 norms).
However, all is not bleak, as Anand Mahindra, chairman, Mahindra Group has offered a much-needed helping hand. Going on twitter, he has spoken of steps the Mahindra group can take to help the general public to tide over this pandemic.
As always, we at evo India trust you are taking care of yourselves, following precautions and most importantly, staying at home. At this time, we cannot stress enough for our readers to ignore the whatsapp messages that say the virus has only ‘x’ hours of life in the open air, or cannot survive over ‘y’ degrees of temperature.
Keep yourself safe. And log onto the evo India YouTube channel to get your daily doses of the Thrill Of Driving.
