BMW India resumes operations at its Chennai plant

BMW Group India started operations at Plant Chennai from Thursday after lockdown norms were relaxed from May 4 in several parts of the country. BMW has issued a statement saying that local production at the plant will be started with less than 50% of the regular workforce.

Since Wednesday, several carmakers have resumed operations across the country including Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai and Mercedes Benz. All the carmakers will be restarting facilities with reduced workforce to maintain guidelines issued by the government and local authorities. These guidelines are to ensure proper precautions are taken at work places to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

BMW has said that apart from the 50% regular workforce, all its other employees will continue to work from home. The Chennai plant will resume its operations in a single shift. Depending on the pandemic situation and government advisories, deployment of staff will be adjusted steadily.

BMW's Chennai plant has implemented several precautionary measures to create a safe working environment including remodelling of plant layout to ensure strict social distancing, individual protective gear for all employees, daily health check-ups, staggered lunch schedules, pre-packed meals and highest level of sanitisation measures.

Besides restarting manufacturing facilities, the company has also said that BMW, MINI and BMW Motorrad dealerships across the country will restart the operations in adherence to local government directives and advisories while maintaining necessary safety and hygiene measures.

Recently, BMW India launched online sales of their vehicles to ensure its customers can buy vehicles through a contactless process. The company announced the 'BMW Contactless Experience', that enables customers to explore and buy new and pre-owned BMW cars, book vehicle service, make payments securely with a click of a button.

The BMW Contactless Experience is designed to seamlessly take customers through a the range of cars and services virtually. Customers can now personalise their preferred BMW and have their queries on product, service packages and finance options addressed in real-time by interacting with a dealer representative online.

For existing BMW customers, the company has allowed booking for service through the BMW Contactless Experience. Once logged into their account, customers can choose a convenient date and time, type of service required and confirm vehicle pick up and drop details. Service cost estimates along with details of the service are sent for customer approval using BMW Smart Video. The serviced vehicle will also be fully sanitised before delivering back to the customers.