France is still reeling from the effects of the global coronavirus outbreak that has thus-far killed 25,204 Frenchpersons. With serious restrictions and a national focus on the problem, the country has managed to get new daily cases down to just 400-ish countrywide. Over at Bugatti in Molsheim, workshop artisans are back to work crafting multi-million dollar automobiles.
Bugatti’s president was infamously continuing to travel to the Molsheim facility even while France recommended serious shelter-in-place regulations. Rules don’t matter to the wealthy, however. I mean, obviously.
Thankfully the massive Bugatti Chiron is more than 6-feet wide, so as long as workers keep a car’s width between them, all is well.
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Here’s Bugatti president Stephan Winkelmann, explaining that the company is doing everything possible to keep its employees safe. You know, shy of keeping them home where they are actually safe.
“We will do everything necessary to ensure that our employees are able to work safely. Wherever possible, they can still work from home to ensure that the minimum possible number of employees are on site at any one time. With the help of the safety measures that we have put in place, we are finally making cars by hand again. That’s an important sign for all of our employees and our customers.”
Every employee entering the Molsheim facility is given a medical-grade mask which must be worn all day. Also, employees are required to clean all tools before and after each use, to help prevent surface transmission.
Employees are also asked to take their own temperature every morning and to not come in to work if they are symptomatic of the coronavirus. As with pretty much every non-government guideline these days, this completely disregards that infected people can transmit the virus for as much as two weeks without showing any symptoms whatsoever. By the time someone is symptomatic, it’s already moved on to pretty much anyone they’ve come in contact with.
I’m not saying that Bugatti is as gnarly a workplace as the disgusting meat packing plants of North America, but a recent test of a Missouri plant found 17 percent of the plant’s workers were infected but did not show outward symptoms or fever, CNN reports.
“I am confident that we have implemented the right measures to allow us to resume production in stages, while also providing the maximum possible protection for our employees,” continues Winkelmann. “We have all faced unexpected challenges in recent weeks, not only at work, but in our life in general. I want to thank everyone for their exemplary behaviour – we will emerge from this crisis stronger as a team.”
Interesting way to look at it. Mission Accomplished, then. If you had a Chiron or Divo on order and it was delayed by the pesky covid-19 problem, fret not for the factory is back on track and your $3 to $7 million hypercar will be arriving soon enough. Wouldn’t want to inconvenience your driving plans.