With their factories and dealerships closed, European automakers and supplier are pitching in to help combat the coronavirus outbreak. Some are working to increase output of ventilators and face masks, while others are donating vehicles, money or volunteer workers to the effort.
A number of automakers have committed to help boost production of ventilators, expensive and complex machines that are used to support the breathing of gravely ill coronavirus patients by putting oxygen into the lungs. Lung failure is a typical cause of death for coronavirus patients.
A critical shortage of ventilators in some areas has led doctors to make life-or-death decisions about which patients can get access to them. Ventilators can cost more than 15,000 euros ($16,400) each.
Among automakers involved in ventilator efforts are:
- PSA Group, which is working with a French consortium including supplier Valeo that is seeking to produce 10,000 of the machines by the end of May.
- Seat, Volkswagen Group’s Spanish brand, which is converting part of its main factory in Martorell to build ventilators using some parts adapted from its vehicles.
- Ford and Rolls-Royce are part of a UK government effort to build 10,000 ventilators.
- Fiat, with the help of Ferrari, has begun producing electrovalves, a key part in ventilators, at its plant in Cento, northern Italy.
To ensure reliable and accessible mobility, automakers are repurposing test fleets and short-term rental services, also called car sharing.
Jaguar Land Rover has postponed launch events for its new Defender. Instead the company is sending 27 New Defenders as part of a shipment of 57 vehicles to the British Red Cross to deliver medicine and food to people under social distancing guidelines. Overall, the automaker has given 160 vehicles to emergency workers in countries including Australia, France, South Africa and Spain.
Free2Move, PSA’s shared mobility brand, has offered hospitals and other healthcare institutions the possibility of using vehicles from its fleets in Paris, Madrid and Lisbon. Workshops and repair centers that are opened can provide support for the safe mobility of medical professionals and specialists for goods distribution.
PSA has donated more than 400,000 protective masks worldwide to hospitals, emergency services and local authorities.
Renault is making 300 Zoe EVs from the Zity short-term rental service available to health-care workers in the Paris area. An additional 1,000 group vehicles, mostly dealership loaners, have been reserved for caregivers throughout France if their personal vehicles break down, Renault said.
VW Group and its brands are contributing to the effort in a variety of ways.
The automaker has started to produce faceshield holders using more than 50 3-D printers at its VW, Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Porsche plants and in its components and heavy truck factories.
VW employees in Germany with medical qualifications will receive full pay up to 15 working days if they volunteer for public health services. The workers include paramedics, nurses and physicians.
Skoda’s short-term rental service platform HoppyGo will make 200 vehicles and 150 electric scooters available free for charities, volunteers and municipalities in the Czech Republic. It is also developing a 3-D printing process to produce respirators.
Audi is donating15,000 face masks to German hospitals, and it has given a cash donation of 600,000 euros to hospitals in Heilbronn and Ingolstadt.
Lamborghini is converting part of its factory in Sant’Agata Bolognese to produce surgical masks and protective shields for a hospital in Bologna. Upholstery workers will switch from making interiors for supercars to making about 1,000 masks a day, Lamborghini said.
Other efforts by automakers include:
- Jaguar Land Rover using its 3-D printing facility in central England to make a target of 5,000 visors a week for health service workers.
- Daimler offering its 3-D printing technology. Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz already uses 3-D printing machines to produce up to 150,000 plastic and metal components every year. This capacity can now be fully utilized for medical purposes, the company said in a news release.