VW, the world’s largest automaker, is pressing ahead with production of the coming ID.3 electric car on Thursday, and said it expects to start European deliveries this summer as planned. Efforts to finish the car’s software are “on the home stretch” and the schedule for the rollout at VW’s German factory in Zwickau remains unchanged, the company said.

Daimler is gradually resuming output of engines and components this week to prepare for key models including the EQC electric SUV. The maker of Mercedes-Benz luxury cars offered a fresh reminder of the risks when it scrapped its forecast for the full-year.

The balancing act between preserving cash and spending some to try to sell cars is entering a crucial phase as European countries, hard-hit by the coronavirus, start to ease the lockdowns that have kept potential buyers indoors for weeks. Volkswagen has made clear it won’t back down on its push for the ID.3, its most important new model in decades, while Peugeot maker PSA Group says it sees no need to add to inventories while sales are dormant.

Getting the calculation right is a major test for automotive CEOs, as they seek to pad liquidity while safely restoring the intricate supply links required for a return to normal times. Carmakers have prepared wide-ranging hygiene measures, including disinfectants in dealerships, to minimize contagion risks in showrooms or during the handover of cars to customers.

For VW, selling the ID.3 in substantial numbers is mission-critical. It’s the first purely battery-powered car based on new standardized underpinnings for mass-market vehicles, helping the German automaker comply with stricter emission rules in Europe. The new technology, dubbed MEB, is due to be rolled out at two large factories in China later this year.

VW officials in recent weeks have acknowledged complications during the software development, but have dismissed reports the project will be delayed. The coronavirus outbreak brought production to a standstill last month, stoking further uncertainty over the carmaker’s ability to stick to the planned schedule.

Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings Plc has opted for a more cautious approach. The British manufacturer said Thursday it intends to reopen its St Athan factory in Wales on May 5. Operations at its main site in Gaydon, England, “are planned to resume later.”

The restarting of factories in France has received pushback from some unions including the CGT, which has argued that the business isn’t essential for the economy. Yet Renault, tire-maker Michelin and Toyota are pushing ahead.

Renault this week began a gradual reopening of sites in France, starting with three engine and parts factories and as little as a quarter of employees working with strict health measures such as temperature monitoring, wearing protective gear and extra cleaning. The company already restarted in countries including Spain, Portugal, Morocco and Russia.

The struggling carmaker, which is working to cut costs and negotiate billions of euros in state-backed loans, plans to reopen its Flins plant near Paris making the Zoe electric car this month. The new battery-powered model was a rare bright spot in dismal quarterly sales published Thursday showing a 19% drop overall and cash burn of 5.5 billion euros.

PSA, which also makes the Opel, Vauxhall and Citroen brands, held back on giving a date to restart its European factories. Chief Financial Officer Philippe de Rovira said this week the company doesn’t want to starting building up inventories before dealerships have reopened.

The French carmaker has forecast the European car market will shrink by a quarter this year and said it’s even prepared for a 50% drop. PSA and Renault have combined inventories of 1.375 million cars.

“If we restart production, it’s because we are selling cars,” de Rovira said on a call. “It’s important to have dealership and sales activity before we push the button.”

Two weeks have passed since the state of emergency was declared in the nation and businesses continue to work under the assumption that temporary closures and shorter working hours will be prolonged.

In addition to the impact of the state of emergency, automakers are suffering from a shortage of parts from Southeast Asia.

According to trade statistics released by the Ministry of Finance, car parts imports from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) declined 9% year-on-year to 17.6 billion yen in March. This is because curfews in China, where the virus broke out, and Southeast Asia have reduced parts production in the region.

Production began to be suspended or reduced at assembly plants in the nation in mid-February. When production was halted in China only, inventory could still be maintained at each company, but when the disease spread throughout Southeast Asia, “the parts supply network was torn to pieces,” an automaker executive said.

Since March, major automakers such as Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Corp. have been forced to suspend or reduce production. On Monday, Toyota implemented an additional cut to production at plants nationwide, including those of its group companies such as Hino Motors Ltd. Honda also announced Monday that it would stop production from April 27 to May 10 at two plants in Saitama Prefecture because parts supply had stalled.

Automakers’ production cuts will also affect related industries. Bridgestone Corp., a tire manufacturer, announced Monday it would temporarily suspend its 11 domestic plants during Golden Week holidays.

Before the state of emergency declaration, Kushikatsu Tanaka Holdings Co., a chain of izakaya bars, decided to suspend operations at all of its locations, but resumed operation at 73 after April 13. They are open from 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., shorter than usual. AP Company, which operates “Tsukada Nojo” izakaya bars, has launched a website that sells locally bred chicken and other ingredients used in its restaurants.

Meanwhile, Isetan Mitsukoshi department stores’ cosmetics sales online in the first half of April more than tripled from the year before. But online sales account for only a few percent of revenue for each store operator. The burden of paying workers on leave is also serious.

BicCamera Inc., a major home electronics retailer with strong online sales, has increased its lineup of products sold by mail order. Amazon Japan imposed restrictions in mid-April on the arrival of goods at its distribution facilities in order to prioritize the shipments of daily necessities such as foods and drinks..

In the first quarter, the motorcycle market sold 431,004 units, a decrease of 6.7 per cent compared to 2019 Q1, caused by a receding economy and increasing household debts and agricultural product prices amid the dire Covid-19 situation.

Most brands are experiencing the same fate, except Vespa, which sold 7,582 bikes this year compared to the 5,686 delivered last year.

“Yamaha’s automatic bikes are easy to ride as they have automatic gears, so the driver can also keep an eye on the map guidance, for example, during the ride,” a source said. “The seat does not need to be lifted to fill gas, leaving space suitable for carrying various items. Sales have expanded in big cities, where delivery services are growing. You can assume that this factor has enhanced Yahama’s automatic-bike sales,” the source added.

Yahama is now all set to release its NMax 155 automatic bike, which comes in four colours. The bike is expected to be priced at Bt85,900.

The previous year saw the company sell close to 52,000 vehicles in Thailand, with the Mazda2 subcompact proving most popular at almost 37,000 units sold.

The Mazda3 added 5,000 units to the tally, while the CX-30 and CX-8 also caught the eye of buyers.

This year Mazda is introducing new products for the crossover and pickup truck markets.

“Although last year the market was highly competitive and suffered unfavourable external factors, Mazda was able to achieve sales of 51,702 units, down 27 percent, and achieved a market share of 5.5 per cent,” said Chanchai Trakarnudomsuk, president of Mazda Sales (Thailand). “The total market fell by 11 percent,” he added.

“The first quarter of the year was affected by many negative factors, particularly the Covid-19 pandemic … which has caused an economic slowdown,” Chanchai said.

“The Thai economy is expected to slow this year to below levels forecasted at the beginning of the year. But we hope that government support and measures to help ease financial matters, and cooperation from all sectors, will help the Thai economy move forward.”

Mazda will also adjust the focus of its marketing strategy this year to target online customers during the lockdown.

“This is because the online media are playing a greater role in our lives,” explained Thee Permpongpanth, company vice president for marketing and government affairs.

“In addition, aftersales service is also an important issue as always. Spare parts are now priced near the market average or even lower in some cases, and parts deliveries to service centres are carried out twice a day, he added.

The World Car Awards was established in 2004 and It is the second success for Mazda Motor Corporation after Mazda MX-5 won the award in the same category in 2016.

The winners were decided by votes by 86 automotive media outlets from 25 countries.

Mazda 3 was designed under the concept “Less is More”, emphasising simplicity of the car to heighten the focus of the driver.

The shift in strategy offers an early indication of a recovery plan that will be unveiled next month, and follows Nissan’s unsuccessful efforts to find a buyer for wholly owned subsidiary Nissan Trading for about $1 billion. One example is to explore ways to use transmission-making unit Jatco for electrification, Gupta said in an interview Wednesday with Bloomberg Television’s Shery Ahn and Haidi Stroud-Watts.

The coronavirus pandemic has added another dimension to Nissan’s struggles. The carmaker’s profits are at decade lows, 12,500 jobs are being cut and there’s been more than a year of management turmoil following the late-2018 arrest of Carlos Ghosn. The global automobile industry, which was already sputtering, is seeing plummeting demand while factories are being closed to prevent the spread of the virus.

“What’s happening today is challenging, but it’s not impossible,” Gupta said. “Before talking about asset sales, we are focused on how we can capitalize existing assets.”

Such assets include not just those from Nissan, but also from Renault SA and Mitsubishi Motors Corp., the company’s partners in a global automaking alliance, Gupta added.

Tatsuo Yoshida, a Bloomberg Intelligence analyst, said that while it made sense for the automaker to sell off businesses such as Nissan Trading, the price and contribution to cash flow no longer appear to justify such a move. “Nissan shouldn’t let go of businesses that would impede its development or growth,” he said.

Nissan faces challenges in countries including the U.S., which has effectively shut down its economy to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Sales in the key market plunged 30% in March, Nissan said last week. Nissan is temporarily laying off about 10,000 workers at auto-parts and vehicle-assembly plants in Mississippi and Tennessee, and Gupta said they will be put back to work once things calm down.

“No. 1 is people first, and No. 2 is cash,” he said.

Gupta said the virus has “taught all of us a lesson.” Rather than achieving globalization, carmakers will shift to a more regional focus, he said. Nissan, for instance, will return to Indonesia even though it is shutting down operations there, according to Gupta. The carmaker said last month that it will end production in Purwakarta, located in the east of Jakarta, which was expanded in 2014 for a 33 billion yen ($304 million) investment to make Datsun vehicles.

One of the challenges of becoming COO was to “shift the focus from big to profitability,” said Gupta, who’s four months into his role at Nissan. Chief Executive Officer Makoto Uchida has said he’s poised to cut costs even further, saying “all possibilities are on the table” in an interview in March.

Their upcoming plan to revamp the business will be “purely based on prioritization and focus,” Gupta said. He said there will be more regionalization, more regulations and a shift in consumer demand from products toward products and services.

“It’s easier said than done,” said Yoshida, pointing out that while most automakers strive to focus on profitability, their track record is poor. “Few companies actually do it.”

French passenger car registrations dropped 72% in March compared with the previous year, according to the CCFA trade group. In Spain, new car registrations fell by 69% to below the worst levels of the financial crisis, the Spanish Association of Automobile and Truck Manufacturers said.

“It is very likely that new car and trucks sales will have to take the biggest hit since 1945,” Juergen Pieper, an analyst at Bankhaus Metzler, said in an email.

Carmakers from Volkswagen, PSA Group, and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles to Renault have shuttered factories and showrooms after governments restricted public life to stem the spread of covid-19. With people housebound in major auto markets like France and Italy and non-essential purchases prohibited, consumers aren’t buying new vehicles.

“April will also be very difficult because populations will remain confined in many countries,” Jacques Aschenbroich, chief executive officer of French car-parts maker Valeo, said on BFM Business radio. “We must be prepared for a very, very difficult next few months.”

German auto-parts maker Continental withdrew financial guidance for the year and said more than 40% of its plants have shut. About 30,000 employees, or half its local workforce, have been registered for state wage support and shorter working hours.

In scrapping its outlook, the company followed a spectrum of firms who have said the outbreak makes it nearly impossible to predict revenue.

Valeo is slashing investment and costs as well as putting staff — including development engineers — on partial unemployment, Aschenbroich said.

“Most of our clients are slowing development of new vehicles so our teams are as well,” the CEO said. “The turnaround will come, maybe later this month, but we just don’t know.”

In Sweden, passenger car registrations fell 8.6% in March, industry organization BIL Sweden said. The drop wasn’t related to the pandemic as the cars were mostly ordered several months earlier.

“We can expect a coronavirus effect on new registrations in the coming months,” said Mattias Bergman, head of BIL Sweden.

Tri Petch Isuzu Sales Co Ltd, official distributor of Isuzu vehicles in Thailand, said that it had been informed by Isuzu about suspension of production at its two plants — in Amphur Prapradaeng, Samut Prakan province, and in Gateway Industrial Estate in Chachoengsao province — from April 13-30.

The statement by Tri Petch Sales on Wednesday hinted at the production suspension impacting deliveries to customers who had booked vehicles. Tri Petch Isuzu Sales, the sole distributor of Isuzu vehicles, assured customers it would do its best to handle the matter.

TMV said the outbreak of COVID-19 had impacted all aspects of business, from economy to society, including the automobile industry. Toyota dealers in Hà Nội have temporarily closed showrooms and workshops in accordance with the direction of the Government and Hà Nội’s People Committee in order to prevent the outbreak from spreading.

Toyota Motor Vietnam decided to adjust production plans in line with the current situation.

“The safety and security of our employees, our stakeholders, our customers and the community are paramount to us,” said Toyota Vietnam’s representative.

“We are taking necessary actions to protect their safety and health as well as minimising any impact on our company’s operation. While closely monitoring the situation, we will consider and make decisions guided by direction from the Government.”

TMV is the second automaker in Việt Nam to announce suspension of operations due to the impacts of COVID-19. The first was Ford Việt Nam which halted automobile production at its factory in the northern province of Hải Dương on March 18. — VNS

The halt in production will also include spare parts.

The three factories are in Samut Prakarn, Ban Phoe and the automaker’s Gateway facility in Chachoengsao.

Toyota said the announcement would not affect its showrooms, while Toyota and Lexus service centres would remain open.

Toyota is now the fifth car producer that has announced a cease in production, following Ford, Honda, Mazda and Mitsubishi.