How is the coronavirus affecting the car industry?

As the coronavirus spread, many auto companies across China closed their doors as part of the recent nationwide shutdown. Tesla’s new factory in Shanghai shut down, postponing the production date of its Model 3, and Volkswagen postponed production at all of its Chinese plants that it runs in partnership with SAIC.

Largely as a result, car sales in China fell 92% in the first half of February.

The impacts on the car industry are now being felt worldwide, as shortages of supplies from China stall production around the globe. Including in th UK.

Hyundai and Kia recently stopped assembly lines in Korea and Nissan announced it would suspend its auto production in Japan. General Motors suggested that production outages could affect plants in Michigan and Texas, Jaguar Land Rover warned the virus could create problems at its assembly plants in Britain, and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles CEO’s Mike Manley said that production at one of the European plants may be suspended by the end of February.

To combat this, with customer footfall in car dealerships heavily reduced, some car makers turned to digital solutions. Volkswagen, Nissan, SAIC and BMW, turned to online shopping for cars using tools including virtual reality and live broadcasts to stimulate sales.

Thankfully, with current measures in place, it is not thought that coronavirus will have any serious short-term impact on car supplies and sales in the UK.