Financial crisis causes its first car-making victims: Opel and BMW temporarily stop production, Ford starts firing people

Due to the financial crisis, Opel decided to temporarily shut down production in almost all its European factories. In Germany, the Bochum production centers with 5000 employees and Eisenach with 1800 employees were shut down for 2-3 weeks. The only factory still on is the Russelsheim one.

Opel representatives declared that this way, car deliveries would decrease by 40,000 by the end of the year. In Saarlouis, Ford fires 204 employees, a Ford spokesperson declared quoted by Deutsche Presse Agentur on Tuesday. The 6,500-staffed Saarland factory produces some 392,500 cars for export.

BMW in Leipzig sees fit to shut down its factory for one week, at the end of October which will translate into 2800 cars undelivered. BMW’s decision is a reaction to the market’s evolution, a spokesperson of the company declared.