Hyundai, Ford, and Bajaj temporarily shut down plants

Amidst Coronavirus outbreak, India’s major automobile companies like Bajaj Auto, Ford Motor, TVS Motor, and Renault-Nissan, etc have announced the temporarily shut down of their manufacturing plants.

• Two-wheeler major TVS Motor Company in a statement said, “In view of COVID-19, and considering the safety and well being of its employees, the company as an interim measure has decided to shut operations at all its manufacturing facilities and offices for two days effective March 23, 2020”

• Ford Motor has announced on Monday that it has decided to temporarily halt vehicle and engine production at its factories in India, South Africa, Thailand, and Vietnam in response to the growing impact of the coronavirus.

• Bajaj Auto said it has suspended production at its manufacturing facilities and has also implemented work from home for office-based staff while international travels for employees, as well as physical meetings, have been cancelled.

• Renault- Nissan Automotive India Pvt Ltd on Monday said it was suspending operations at its facility near Chennai with effect from March 24 in view of the coronavirus outbreak. The company, in a statement, said the operations at the unit would be halted until further notice.

• Maruti Suzuki on said in a statement. “The company will shut production and office operations at its facilities in Gurugram and Manesar, Haryana with immediate effect till further notice. The R&D Centre at Rohtak will also remain closed. The duration of this shutdown will depend upon government policy.” The Gurugram district administration had on Saturday, 21 March directed all production units, barring those involved in essential services, to close till March 31, 2020.

• Hyundai Motor India suspends manufacturing operations at Chennai facility. In an official statement, the automobile manufacturer said: “Hyundai Motor India Ltd will be taking the preventive counter-measure of suspending its manufacturing operations at the Chennai facility from Monday, March 23, 2020 till further notice to stop the spread of coronavirus (Covid-19) — a global pandemic.”

• Kia Motors India has suspended all the operations at its manufacturing facility in Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh in order to check the spread of Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. The operations will remain suspended till further notice.

• Hero MotoCorp has suspended production at their factories till the end of this month in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic. Hero MotoCorp has said apart from India, it has also suspended operations in its other factories in Bangladesh and Colombia.

Though, there is a long list of automobile companies in India that have suspended its productions amidst the coronavirus outbreak. We have mentioned only few of them as per data available with us.

The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in India inched up to 492 with nine fatalities reported so far, but health experts have warned that a big jump could be imminent, which would overwhelm the underfunded and crumbling public health infrastructure. India will halt domestic flights from midnight tonight with a majority of the country under complete lockdown to stop the spread of coronavirus.