Nio, a Chinese electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer, said on Saturday that it had halted manufacturing after the country’s recent COVID-19 outbreak affected operations at its suppliers facilities.
“Since March, the EV startup’s supplier partners in numerous regions including Jilin, Shanghai, and Jiangsu ceased production one after the other owing to causes related to the COVID19 pandemic and are still yet to recover,” the company claimed on its mobile app. “As a result of the impact of this, Nio has been forced to suspend automobile manufacture.”
The company will also postpone EV deliveries to consumers and will work with suppliers to resume delivery while satisfying the government’s COVID19 restrictions, it added.
China has implemented rigorous lockdown measures to prevent the spread of the recent and highly infectious Omicron in key locations, including Jilin province and Shanghai, where a majority of car part manufacturers and automakers have factories located.
Tesla has also halted production at its Shanghai facility since March 28, according to Reuters, after the city began a two-stage lockdown that was subsequently expanded citywide.
Volkswagen’s joint venture facility with FAW Group in Changchun, Jilin’s province capital, has also been shuttered since mid-March, while its joint venture plant with SAIC Motor in Shanghai has been closed since April 1.
The moral of the story is that the disastrous effects of the COVID-19 continue to reverberate throughout all sectors of the economy including the EV sector. So if you are fortunate enough to already own an EV, you might want to hold on to it for a little while longer.
