Volkswagen to resume production in stages

Wolfsburg, 16/04/20 – The plants of the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand are to successively restart production.

First, production is to be resumed at the plants in Zwickau and Bratislava (Slovakia) in the week from April 20. The other plants in Germany and in Portugal, Spain, Russia and the USA are to restart production in the week from April 27.

Subsequently, during May, production will be resumed successively in South Africa, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico.

Ralf Brandstätter, COO of the Volkswagen brand, said: "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.

Production will be resumed in line with the current availability of parts, government requirements in Germany and Europe, the development of sales markets and the resulting modes of operation of the plants. Irrespective of these developments, compliance with the stringent health protection measures for employees will always be the top priority.

In the resumption of production, the company can also call upon the experience gained with the production ramp-up at its plants in China where a large number of consistent health protection measures have been successfully implemented. 32 of the 33 plants in China have now returned to production. No cases of coronavirus have been reported among the employees there. Volkswagen continues to closely monitor the global situation arising as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Further action will be based to a large extent on dialogue and procedures within the Volkswagen Group and recommendations including those of the Robert Koch Institute.