BMW and Toyota halt production in Europe over COVID-19 crisis

BMW and Toyota are the latest addition to the list of car manufacturers shutting down operations in Europe over the economic impact of the coronavirus.

The halt in operations will directly affect UK plants in Oxfordshire and Derbyshire.

“From today, we will shut down our European car factories and the Rosslyn factory in South Africa,” BMW’s chief executive, Oliver Zipse, said, adding that the interruption is expected for now to last until 19 April.

BMW expects its annual profits to be significantly lower as it is closing down factories that accounted for half of the 2.6m cars built last year.

Toyota has already suspended production at its facility in Onnaing, France, while its UK plants in Burnaston and Deeside and Polish plants in Walbrzych and Jelcz-Laskowice will halt work from Wednesday 18 March.

This will be followed by the Toyota Peugeot Citroen Automobiles plant in Kolin, Czech Republic on 19 March and its Turkish plant in Sakarya on 21 March.

Other carmakers such as Volkswagen, Fiat, Ford and Peugeot also halted production this week and over 10,000 car workers have been laid off across the industry as Nissan.

Jaguar Land Rover kept its UK sites operating but has frozen output at its Slovak factory.

“All of our UK plants remain open and we plan to keep building cars until at least the end of the week, subject to the ongoing supply of parts,” the company said.

“We will continue to closely monitor and review the situation as it evolves.”