I hope when you are reading this piece, Coronavirus has already been managed in your country. If not, they fear not, it’ll come to an end. The year 2020 has been hard for the entire world, everything was brought to a standstill. The world was brought to a screeching halt by the Coronavirus and the automotive industry was not left behind. In fact, with the closing of most borders, the automotive industry is one of the most hard hit. So, let us take a look at 4 ways in which corona has brought the automotive industry to its knees in 2020.
- Slowed down International Trade
We know just how much many different raw materials are sought from different parts of the world. With the closing of many borders, raw materials for car manufacturing have seen a sharp decline in their availability. This has slowed down the manufacturing and launching of vehicles as planned in the 2020 automotive schedule. Even those who had prepaid for new car purchases for 2020 and were anticipating their releases have had to wait till the situation is managed or be refunded the money spent so far. This is one aspect that has hit the industry hard!
- Shifted Focus to Medical Equipment
We all know just how much the coronavirus exposed the underbelly of medical unpreparedness in the majority of the countries in the world. There has been an acute shortage of medical equipment such as ventilators all over the world and other prevention equipment such as sanitizers and facemasks. This has led to factories redirecting their resources to the manufacturing of the imminently needed equipment for managing the pandemic. This means that until there are enough medical equipment, very little focus will be given to the automotive industry.
- Reduced income for automobile users
There has been a drastic reduction in income for people all over the world. Economies have been adversely affected and many people have lost their jobs. This has meant that the users of these automobiles are not only failing to use the machines, but are also not focused in making any purchase right now. This makes it worse for the automotive industry as this is a rather high value industry which requires quite some large amount of money to purchase or maintain a its products. Therefore, reduced income directly translated to reduce spending on the automotive industry as a whole.
- Closing down of Factories and Laying down of Workers
There are so many factories that have had to shut down, unfortunately, and lay off of most of its workers. This has slowed down the availability of certain key raw materials and services that are overall needed in the automotive industry. Remember automotive industry requires input from several varying fields that have to come together. When any of this industries, even if its not the automotive industry itself gets affected, it has a chain reaction on the automotive industry. Therefore, when one professional on one industry related to the automotive industry is laid off, or affected in any way, the ripple effects will be felt severely in this industry.
Well, this just about sums it up, coronavirus and Covid-19 is really terrorizing us. It has brought life to a standstill and affected the economy in ways that will take quite some time to recover. But man has never been brought down, we shall overcome this eventually, no matter how long it takes. Then, after all is said and done, we shall get back to what we love to do the most, explore the wonderful world of cars.
