Car giants BMW and Toyota are to suspend car-making at their UK plants as part of a temporary shutdown of European production.
The manufacturers join Nissan and Vauxhall in closing down factories due to falling sales and a lack of parts caused by the coronavirus epidemic.
The shutdowns mean Jaguar Land Rover and Honda will be the only big car firms left operating in the UK. However, JLR is expected to halt production in the coming days.
BMW has about 8,000 staff in the UK. It operates a Mini factory near Oxford, as well as plants in Swindon and Hams Hall and makes Rolls Royce cars at Goodwood.
The car giant said in a statement: “Due to the rapidly evolving coronavirus pandemic we have taken the difficult decision to cease production at our production sites at Oxford and Swindon as of Monday next week (23 March) for a period of four weeks until 17 April.
“The plans for Hams Hall are under development and a subsequent announcement will be made.”
It said it factory workers would be paid during the four week period, but would be expected to take the time off either as holiday, accrued overtime, or as “negative overtime” which they will “pay back” at a later date.
A Toyota spokesman said the car giant was suspending production at its European plants, including its factory at Burnaston in Derbyshire and its engine facility in Deeside. Together the two plants employ about 3,000 people.
The staff, who will be off work from tomorrow until further notice, will be put on paid leave. The shutdown is expected to last for at least the next two weeks.
The firms join a raft of car manufacturers temporarily shutting down or scaling back European production, including: Ferrari, Fiat Chrysler, Ford and French carmaker PSA, which owns the Peugeot, Opel and Vauxhall brands. the other are TPSA, a joint venture owned by PSA and Toyota, Renault, Volkswagen, Daimler, the owner of the Mercedes-Benz brand, Nissan and Sweden’s Volvo Cars, owned by China’s Geely.
All are struggling to get the parts they need due to travel restrictions across the continent, as well as facing a drop-off in sales as people limit all but essential social contact.
Source: bbc.com
