Start Your Engines

The global auto industry has found ingenious ways of responding to the pandemic and coming to the aid of frontline workers battling the crisis

- Varun Godinho

It has been a tumultuous first quarter for the luxury car industry. While 2020 began with carmakers preening ambitious plans for co-branded speed boats and luxury residences, in a matter of weeks they retooled their production lines to instead manufacture personal protective equipment (PPE) and machines to support the efforts to combat the Covid-19 virus.

Early in April, as the virus began to accelerate, Jaguar Land Rover started manufacturing 3D-printed visors at its Advanced Product Creation Centre in Gaydon. Those visors were dispatched to the UK’s National Health Service (NHS).

Towards the end of the month, JLR began to use new tooling from WHS Plastics that allowed it to scale up and manufacture up to 2,000 pieces a day of these vital PPE. It also deployed 362 vehicles to organisations in countries around the world from Austria and Australia to Brazil and Russia.

While Aston Martin’s share value has tumbled over 80 per cent since the start of the year, despite Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll agreeing to invest GBP182m ($224m) into the iconic car brand, it didn’t stop it from doing its bit for the pandemic. At its Gaydon plant, it repurposed machines that otherwise cut leather used in the interiors of its cars to instead cut silicone components to make intubation boxes to protect medical practitioners during the intubation and extubation process. It also manufactured protective visors and gowns that were cut on the premises too.

Less than 100 miles away, fellow British carmaker Bentley 3D-printed more than 30,000 face shields at its facility in Crewe while also donating other equipment like gloves, masks and safety glasses to healthcare workers.