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The prospects for the German automotive industry "deteriorated significantly" as a result of the coronavirus crisis, the German ifo Institute announced on Monday.
According to ifo, export expectations of Germany's automotive industry "took a nosedive" from minus 17.3 points in February to minus 42.7 points in March, the lowest level since the financial crisis. The institute's index for overall business expectations for the coming months plummeted from minus 19.7 points in February to minus 33.7 points.
Production expectations dropped similarly and crashed from 4.2 points to minus 35.9 points. More than 40 percent of German companies in the automotive sector expected to introduce short-time work for its employees.
All major German carmakers including BMW, Daimler, Volkswagen and subsidiaries Audi and Porsche announced plans to halt production due to the coronavirus crisis for several weeks.
The "safety and health of employees" was now the most important thing, said Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess, adding everything would need to be done to slow down the spread of the coronavirus.
On Monday, BMW announced that around 80 percent of its retail outlets in Europe and 70 percent of those in the United States were currently closed due to the coronavirus.
Last week, the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) announced that passenger car production in Germany was "hit massively". German manufacturers only produced 287,900 cars in March, 37 percent fewer than in the same month last year.
"We worry about jobs and the future," said VDA President Hildegard Mueller. The coronavirus crisis would be "existential" to Germany's automotive industry.
