VOW3 Volkswagen AG

By William Boston

BERLIN--Volkswagen AG, the German auto giant, said Wednesday that it would begin restarting its European factories as soon as next week, as the company successively resumes churning out cars after a monthlong shut down to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

The first plant to go back online is Volkswagen's factory in Zwickau in eastern Germany, which resumes production on April 20. The site of the original pre-World War II factory of the Audi, which is now a Volkswagen subsidiary, is in the process of being transformed into an electric vehicle plant, converting production of its flagship Golf to make the new I.D.-3 all-electric compact car.

The company's other German factories including its main plant in Wolfsburg, as well as factories in Bratislava, Slovakia, Portugal, Spain, Russia and the U.S. Factories in South Africa, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico are scheduled to resume production in May.

Around 80,000 Volkswagen German employees were placed on short-time work when the German factories were temporarily closed last month, enabling the company to receive government aid to continue to pay workers and keep them on staff.

Ralf Brandstätter, chief operating officer of the Volkswagen brand, said workers would be successively removed from short-time work rolls as they were returned to their jobs over the coming weeks.

Volkswagen's factories in China, where the company generates around 40% of its annual sales, have been back in operation since February and are operating at about 60% of their pre-crisis capacity, a company spokesman said.

As employees return to work, Volkswagen has introduced a wide range of safety measures aimed at preventing an outbreak of the virus among the work force. Anyone entering its factories is screened for fever, non-employees are not allowed entry into the plants. Once inside, workers are not allowed to congregate and must wear masks. Plant cafeterias are closed and workers are required to eat meals at their work stations and maintain distance from other employees.

Volkswagen employees that build components such as engines and transmissions began returning to work at production at plants in Braunschweig and Kassel on April 6. Plants in Salzgitter, Chemnitz and Hanover began operating again on April 14.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 15, 2020 15:38 ET (19:38 GMT)

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