Volkswagen has confirmed that the next day 20, it will begin to reopen its Pamplona plant in Spain to recover the activity of the facilities as soon as possible. Some European car factories, such as the PSA group or Hyundai, have indicated that they will resume activity even earlier.
This fact supposes to advance in more than a month the initial forecasts of the analysts, who did not expect the works to resume so soon, and which in this case will allow putting into operation a facility that directly employs 4,800 workers.
Toyota and Volkswagen announcements will undoubtedly have an impact on the entire industry that could follow the example of the two giants and bring forward the dates of their workers return to the plants.
BMW has estimated April 30 as the most likely date for the reactivation of its plants in Europe, although it could advance the deadlines if the other groups do the same. Daimler, for its part, will do so between the 20th and 22nd of this month. Others who have decided to recover production even earlier have been the Hyundai-KIA group. Hyundai will bring its factory in the Czech Republic into operation on the 14th of this month. An installation where the European electric Kona comes out, which will recover its production already next week. For its part, KIA has already resumed work in Slovakia this past Monday.
The PSA Group will begin the gradual reopening of its European plants from April 13, which will affect its facilities in Germany, Poland, the United Kingdom, and Slovakia. Ford currently maintains its shutdown until May 4, so the Valencia factory, unless plans change, will not return to work until next month. From Renault, no specific deadlines have been given so far. Still, expectations are that the subsidiary Dacia will be the first to return to activity in mid-April, after which the scenario for plants in Spain will be analyzed. They will possibly have to wait until the end of the month or the beginning of May.
Deadlines that, according to brands will depend on the ability to give maximum safety to their workers in the face of the coronavirus that has brought the powerful European automotive industry to its knees, but which seems to be a few weeks away from trying to return to a certain normality. In the US, the automakers are all closed.