Due to the outbreak of the epidemic, a number of automakers and parts suppliers in Shanghai have announced the suspension of work and production since March. As the core hub of China's auto parts enterprises, the vehicle production capacity of shanghai under the sea accounts for more than 10% of the country's automobile production capacity, and its importance is self-evident. However, as Shanghai's auto industry once pressed the "pause button", it also had a serious impact on the domestic automotive industry.
Including SAIC Volkswagen, SAIC-GM, Tesla and other vehicle manufacturers due to the epidemic shutdown, while Weilai, Great Wall Dongfeng Nissan and many other car companies have also had to suspend vehicle production because of the suspension of parts supply chain, multi-day suspension of production has undoubtedly produced huge economic losses for car companies.
Taking Tesla as an example, Tesla's production in January reached an average of 2,000 vehicles per day, and as of now Tesla has been suspended for 24 days, calculating that Tesla's production has decreased by 48,000 vehicles, resulting in a loss of at least 14 billion yuan in revenue.
In addition to Tesla, faw-Volkswagen, the largest car company in China, is also "miserable". It is understood that FAW-Volkswagen's Hongqi brand has a daily production capacity of about 1,300 vehicles, and as of now, the construction period has been suspended for 27 days, and the loss of production capacity is as high as 36,000 vehicles.
Not only the car companies have suffered losses, Shanghai's automobile industry has been greatly impacted, if Shanghai does not resume work and production, then its automobile production or completely interrupted.
Therefore, the top priority is to restore Shanghai's automobile industry as soon as possible, and the relevant departments in Shanghai have begun to vigorously call on car companies to "resume work and production". On April 15, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other three departments conveyed the spirit of the State Council's special meeting on ensuring the smooth flow of goods and the stability of the industrial chain supply chain, studied the establishment of an emergency coordination mechanism for the demands of the industrial chain supply chain, and set up a "white list" of key enterprises to ensure operation; on April 16, the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology issued the "Guidelines for the Prevention and Control of the Epidemic in Shanghai Industrial Enterprises resuming Work and Production (First Edition)", requiring that under the premise of ensuring that risks are controllable, the resumption of work and production of enterprises should be effectively and orderly promoted.
Judging from the list of "resumption of work and production" released, there are a total of 249 automobile-related enterprises, including the list of complete vehicle manufacturers including SAIC Volkswagen Co., Ltd., SAIC Lingang Passenger Car Plant, SAIC-GM Motor Co., Ltd., Tesla (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. and other car companies located in Shanghai. At the same time, hundreds of automobile upstream and downstream industrial chains and parts companies have also been included in the "white list" of the first batch of key enterprises to resume work and production. This also means that the Shanghai automotive industry, which has been "dormant" for a long time, will begin to regroup.
Tesla, which was listed as a "discontinued enterprise that must resume work" in the Lingang area, has now entered the rhythm of resuming work. Not only did it inform its employees to prepare for the resumption of work, but after the resumption of work, the production line of the Shanghai factory was changed from the previous two-shift system to a one-shift system. The implication is that Tesla cannot restore production capacity to the previous level at the first time after the resumption of work, but if the resumption of work is successful, Tesla will implement closed production, arrange buses to pick up employees to return to the factory, and employees will eat and live in the factory during the closure period, and conduct nucleic acid testing regularly.
In fact, this is not the first time that Tesla has implemented a "resumption plan". Previously, Tesla stopped production for two consecutive days on March 16 and March 17, and then on March 28, Tesla suspended the production activities of the Shanghai Gigafactory, and Tesla said that the second round of suspension was 4 days, and the follow-up would resume production. However, contrary to expectations, the intensification of the epidemic has delayed Tesla's resumption of production plan, resulting in the stage of suspension of production, so it is difficult to say whether Tesla's resumption of production can be smooth.
At the same time, FAW-Volkswagen, FAW Jiefang and other factories will also resume work and production. The relevant person in charge of SAIC Motor Group previously said that not only will their automakers conduct stress tests, but also some core component factories will be driven into stress tests. In the future, we will also comprehensively consider the trend of the epidemic situation, stress test results, etc., formulate further dynamic plans for the resumption of work and production, and make positive and comprehensive preparations for the formal resumption of work and production.
But even restarting the production line does not mean that the car company can put into production at full capacity. After all, at present, Shanghai car companies want to fully restore production capacity is still facing many challenges, such as the original parts needed for automobile manufacturing can be delivered in one day, but now many companies are in full load operation, coupled with logistics defects into stagnation, parts delivery time takes at least three or four days, or even longer.
Not only logistics, but also many auto parts manufacturers in Shanghai have been forced to stop production due to the epidemic. For example, Shanghai Bosch Auto Parts Co., Ltd. is the core parts supplier of FAW, Changan, BMW, Weilai, Great Wall and other mainstream car companies; the largest domestic automotive wiring harness supplier Aptiv has a number of production bases in Shanghai Jiading, and is an important wiring harness supplier for Tesla, SAIC-GM, SAIC Volkswagen and other vehicle manufacturers; if these auto parts manufacturers cannot take the lead in resuming work, then even if the car companies resume work and production, they cannot guarantee the follow-up production capacity.
The uncertainty of the epidemic has brought unprecedented challenges to Shanghai's auto industry, coupled with rising raw material prices, chip supply shortages and other problems, which is undoubtedly worse. For car companies, it is not easy to resume work and production, after all, in addition to facing the uncontrollable epidemic, but also facing the resumption of supply chain and logistics and other issues, the situation is still not optimistic.