Elon Musk, co-founder and chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., Photo: ROBYN BECK
In a sign that manufacturers are eyeing a near-future date to get workers back to work, two auto manufactures have signaled they are getting ready to reopen factory production lines, albeit for different purposes.
Ford Motor Company issued a press release early Thursday morning saying they are looking at an early April window in which they hope to reopen several manufacturing facilities following the pausing of of nearly all of their production due to the coronavirus. “Ford is aiming to restart production at select plants in North America as early as April 6, bringing key plants back online while the company introduces additional safety measures to protect returning workers,” Kumar Galhotra, Ford’s president of North America said in the press release.
Plants Ford is considering restarting include the Dearborn Stamping Plant, the Dearborn Diversified Manufacturing Plant, stamping facilities in Kansas City and Kentucky, the Sharonville Transmission Plant and parts of the Van Dyke Transmission, Lima Engine and Rawsonville Components plants. Time will tell if the April 6 date is possible as coronavirus cases and deaths in the U.S. and worldwide continue to climb.
Meanwhile, Tesla CEO Elon Musk says he is working to reopen the New York Gigafactory as soon as possible in order to start producing medical ventilators for New York medical facilities. New York has been hit hard by the virus and the resultant COVID-19 illness, with close to 30,000 cases identified so far and hundreds of deaths. Medical ventilators are a key component in treating COVID-19, which targets the respiratory system. The devices have been in short supply due to the soaring COVID-19 caseload. “Giga New York will reopen for ventilator production as soon as humanly possible. We will do anything in our power to help the citizens of New York,” Musk said Wednesday on Twitter.
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Tesla’s New York Gigafactory doesn’t produce Tesla cars like the Fremont, California and Chinese gigafactories. Instead, the New York facility makes power products and solar cells for Musk’s SolarCity venture, among other items. SpaceX, also headed by Musk, is also producing protective gear and sanitizers for healthcare workers and small businesses. In California, multiple sources have reported that Tesla has donated 1,000 ventilator units to the state to help treat victims.
The announcements comes as some politicians and President Donald Trump have said they hope to have people heading back to work in April. Others have argued the timeframe may not be reasonable or safe.
