Jaguar Land Rover has announced plans to resume production at one of its UK factories.
The company said today it would restart manufacturing operations at its plant in Solihull from May 18 along with its bases in Slovakia and Austria after implementing a shutdown last month.
The move suggests the company may be considering the reopening of its Halewood site, though there is no confirmation of a reopening date for Halewood as yet.
The factory in Solihull will be running one shift initially, rather than the usual three, meaning around a quarter of the workforce will be on site, but this is expected to increase in due course.
This latest move follows the news this week that the company was furloughing 20,000 staff while earlier this month it announced it was using its 3D printing tech to make protective visors for NHS staff.
No reopening dates have been released yet by JLR about its other factories in the West Midlands and on Merseyside.
However, the company has said the restart of production at other sites will be "confirmed in due course", Business Live reported.
In Solihull, production will resume on the following models - Range Rover, Range Rover Sport, Range Rover Velar, Land Rover Defender, Land Rover Discovery, Jaguar F-Pace, E-Pace and I-Pace.
A statement from the company said: "In China, we are beginning to see recovery in vehicle sales and customers are returning to our showrooms.
"Our joint venture plant in Changshu has been in operation since the middle of February.
"As countries are relaxing distancing guidelines and retailers are reopening around the world, the restart of production at our other plants will be confirmed in due course.
"The health and wellbeing of our employees is our first priority. We are developing robust protocol and guidelines to support a safe return to work.
"We will adopt strict social distancing measures across our business and are currently evaluating a number of different measures to ensure we protect and reassure our workforce when they begin to return to work.
"We continue to monitor the covid-19 situation and follow the guidance of all relevant authorities in the markets in which we operate."
