Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles (VWCV) is taking action in response to the coronavirus pandemic and will be suspending vehicle production.
The uncertain sales environment for light commercial vehicles, combined with supplier’s volatile supply chains and protecting the health of all employees are the reason for the shutdown which is anticipated to be ten days from March 19, 2020.
The production sites affected are those in Hannover (T6.1, Amarok and eCrafter), Poznań in Poland (Caddy and T6.1) and Września in Poland (Crafter).
“The coronavirus pandemic is impacting our entire business: on supply chains, on our production operation, on sales and on our distribution and service partners,” VWCV board of management chairman Thomas Sedran.
“We have therefore decided at Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles to shut down production at all three sites. This is the only right decision to take, not least so as not to expose our workers to any unnecessary health risk,” says Sedran.
All measures taken to date remain applicable until further notice, always with the aim of preventing personal contact wherever possible and thus containing the spread of the coronavirus.
This includes more flexible use of remote working, meetings being held by Skype or telephone and company restaurants and self-service shops being closed and no catering being provided.
Employees returning from abroad at any time since March 14 are for the duration of the incubation period of 14 days not being allowed to enter any Volkswagen AG operating sites or other premises
The suspension affects around 24,000 staff in Germany and Poland.
