Volkswagen of America has reportedly put back the restart of production at its assembly plant in Chattanooga amid concerns about the readiness of the company’s supply base.
Ward’s reports that the company issued a statement saying that it has ‘reassessed plans to resume production May 3’.
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Ward’s said the statement went on to say that before setting a new start date, Volkswagen will weigh the ‘readiness of the supplier base, as well as market demand and the status of the COVID-19 outbreak’.
VW Chattanooga, which assembles the Atlas SUV and Passat models, suspended production March 21 prior to stay-at-home mandates from state and local government.
Ward’s noted that the automaker said in late March it planned to resume production at Chattanooga on April 12. But on April 11, production and maintenance employees were placed on temporary emergency furlough.
In an April 22 statement announcing the planned May 3 restart, VW said it had implemented new worker health and safety measures and cited relaxed state and county restrictions.
Chattanooga would have been one of the first US auto plants shut down by COVID-19 to resume vehicle production, but the further delay underpins concerns over supply chains and the overall state of demand.
The US national vehicle market is expected to be over 50% down when April results are all in, with sales varying by state according to the strictness of lockdown measures designed to address the COVID-19 public health emergency.
