Volkswagen the world’s largest carmaker by sales, on Monday said it had resumed work at its biggest factory in Wolfsburg, Germany, to give its workers time to adapt to new hygiene measures to combat the coronavirus.
Encouraged by a fall in infection rates, Germany eased lockdown rules and carmakers are relying on the country’s ability to trace and contain the coronavirus to put Europe’s largest economy back to work.
In Wolfsburg, around 8,000 workers started building cars again on Monday, including the Volkswagen Golf.
This week 1,400 cars will be built, followed by 6,000 cars in a fortnight, Volkswagen said.
Production capacity in the Wolfsburg plant will be at around 10%-15% to begin with, and reach around 40% of pre-crisis levels in the week after, Andreas Tostmann, Volkswagen brand’s board member responsible for production told Reuters.
“The restart of Europe’s biggest car factory after weeks of standstill is an important symbol for our employees, our dealers, suppliers, the German economy and for Europe,” Tostmann said.