COVID-19 World Pandemic
Source: bioworld.com
At the beginning of 2019, no one knew that the ending of the year, everyone would be at risk of life-threatening disease COVID-19. The disease which was originated from Wuhan, China, and later was spread all the countries of the world. World Health Organisation declared it a “World Pandemic”. Where lives were in danger, the global economy suffered badly due to lockdown in most of the countries, which halted the production and caused supply and demand shocks in every industry including automobiles as well.
The global car market faced a steep descent with almost a 73% drop in vehicle sales worldwide. To stop the spread of COVID-19, production of all sort of cars and other vehicles were shut down including the showrooms and other automobile outlets (including retailers). Some online car dealers like zemotor, who provide a platform for sale and purchase of used and new cars are still offering their service.
Automobile Makers Initiative
Source: galileognss.eu
In this difficult time, when many automakers took a step to redundant thousands of employees to avoid bankruptcy some stood forward and played a vital role in helping the government and their nation. The most famous giants of the automobile industry like Ford, Jaguar Land Rover, Rolls-Royce offered hundreds of vehicles to the government and National Health Care Service Providers. Ford lent 200 vehicles from the press fleet and Jaguar Land Rover gave 160 along with 27 examples of new Defender. Whereas, Rolls-Royce – known for the luxury and class presented 30 limousines for delivering groceries and medical supplies. Moreover, Vauxhall and Nissan started providing free transportation and roadside service to healthcare and frontline workers.
Car Makers to Mask Makers
Source: caranddriver.com
This was not the end of support offered by the automobile industry, the Chinese carmaker BYD was the first to take a bold step and switched their production lines. Rather than being a typical carmaker, they began producing face masks and disinfectants. Switching the production line was not so easy but soon they began producing 5 million masks and 300,000 bottles of disinfectants per day. This per-day production made them the world’s largest producers. As the COVID-19 soon moved from China to Europe, the need of face-masks and Personal Protection Equipment’s demand increased, which surpassed the supply. The local industry followed the BYD’s strategy and Italian luxury car makers of Lamborghini switched the production lines in their Sant’Agata Bolognese plant and started producing face masks and face shields. Later, Aston Martin, Rolls-Royce, SEAT, and other European carmakers followed their footsteps.
Ventilator Production
Source: global.chinadaily.com.cn
Where most of the carmakers were busy manufacturing shield for healthy peoples. Some stood up for the ones who became a victim of COVID-19. This virus severely affects the respiratory system causing difficulty in breathing and filling the lungs with debris and fluids. These fluids enter the lungs and make it almost impossible to breathe naturally. Hence, the use of a ventilator (a machine that helps patients to breathe and helps the air in and out of the lungs) becomes necessary. Before the COVID-19 outbreak, the demand for a ventilator was very low and only a bunch of companies were manufacturing it. Fulfilling a tsunami of orders was next to impossible for them in a short span of time. The smart minds if the automobile industry came up with a unique contribution in a hard time and started manufacturing every possible component of the ventilator from their spare part.
The pioneer of the electronic cars – Tesla embraced the idea and later Ford and GM added a pragmatic approach to it. The Spanish carmaker, SEAT also played their part by producing a ventilator – OxyGEN, which comprises of a repurposed windshield wiper motor that helps the machine pumps. Apart from the luxury carmakers, the team of manufacturers from the UK of Formula One started a project, which they named “Project Pitlane”. In this project, they facilitated and fast-tracked the production of the medical devices used for the cure of patients suffering from COVID-19 by collaborating engineers and healthcare workers.
In A Nutshell
Source: arkvalleyvoice.com
In 2024, the most dangerous word to hear from was POSITIVE. No one would like to hear that their report came positive of COVID-19. There was a massive decline in the sales of the global automobile industry as all the production was stopped. No retailers are allowed for business but Zemotor provides a hub for car sellers and purchasers at a reasonable price. Where lockdown made the world anti-social, the front-line warriors stood to fight for us. In this pandemic, the automobile industry played their part in every possible way from switching their production to face masks and ventilators to providing free roadside services to the healthcare provider.
