April 3, 2020
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The corona crisis is affecting the German car maker BMW. CEO Oliver Zipse said in an in-house interview: “I don’t want to downplay the situation. Such a serious situation can put existential danger even for large companies – because the trading companies outside of China are practically at a standstill. ”
Ensuring liquidity is an absolute priority for the Group.
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BMW is doing this from a position of strength, “but no company can manage such a phase without substantial cuts. And that has to happen very quickly. ”The board had decided to take extensive measures to ensure liquidity, Zipse wrote on Friday.
BMW has stopped car production in Europe and the USA, and around 20,000 people in Germany are on short-time work. Zipse said BMW is “preparing to ramp up production at the right time”, internationally coordinated, also with the suppliers. It is crucial when the car dealerships are allowed to open again. The demand is there, “but customers cannot order and receive cars as usual. That is why we must have no illusions: the way back can be longer. “
“We are already producing on a large scale in China, and sales are picking up speed again,” said Zipse. This offers orientation as it could go in Europe and the USA. In order to avoid contagion among BMW employees, masks should also make sense. BMW can buy them or maybe even produce them themselves.
He has great confidence in the German government that “it will achieve the best possible balance between health protection and maintaining the economy,” said Zipse. The German government and the Bavarian state government acted consistently and correctly in an exceptional situation: “They deserve the greatest respect for this.” And the often criticized German health system is also robust and literally life-saving.
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