Production will begin slowly with UK plants remaining shut until later in the spring
An employee works on the production line at the Ford plant in Saarlouis, Germany, in 2007. It is set to reopen on Monday 4 May.
Photograph: Ralph Orlowski/Getty Images
Ford said it would restart its main European car factories on Monday 4 May, but its UK plants in Dagenham and Bridgend will stay closed until later in the spring.
The US car giant, which closed its European and North American factories at the height of the coronavirus pandemic in mid-March, said production would begin slowly with strict standards on social distancing and safety precautions.
“We need to prepare for a new environment once we are past the initial peak of the coronavirus pandemic in Europe, with the key priority in our ‘return to work’ plan being the implementation of Ford’s global standards on social distancing and strengthened health and safety protocols,” said Stuart Rowley, president of Ford of Europe.
Ford factories in Saarlouis and Cologne in Germany, Valencia in Spain and Craiova in Romania, will reopen on Monday. Its engine plant in Valencia will open on 18 May.
Ford said its plants in Dagenham, KentEssex, and Bridgend, Wales, would resume at “a later date”. It is understood that this is likely to be later in May. About 2,200 people normally work at the Dagenham plant, and 1,200 people at the Bridgend factory. Most have been placed on the government’s furlough scheme, with wages topped up to their base salaries by Ford.
Safety measures include mandatory face masks, which the company will produce itself to “reduce demand on stretched supply chains for personal protection equipment also needed by medical services and other industries”.
Work stations have been redesigned to ensure employees will be able to work at a distance from colleagues. All people entering Ford factories will have to have their body temperature checked and employees will also be required to fill out daily wellness self-assessment forms.
“This is an unprecedented time for our business, but it is bringing out the very best in our people at Ford, so many of whom are engaged in supporting their communities in a multitude of actions across Europe,” Rowley said.
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Jaguar Land Rover, the UK’s biggest carmaker, plans to gradually reopen some factories on 18 May. The company’s Solihull plant, which employs 9,000 workers making its Range Rover models, will reopen with a quarter of its workers at first, alongside SUV plants in Slovakia and Austria. Vauxhall said it was ready to reopen its Ellesmere Port site south of the Wirral after setting out socially distanced production lines, break areas and restrooms.
Aston Martin Lagonda said it would reopen its factory in St Athan, south Wales, on 5 May with new safety measures similar to those planned by Vauxhall.
Japan’s Nissan warned on Tuesday that it it faces an annual loss of as much as 95bn yen (£700m) – it’s first full-year loss since the 2008 financial crisis.