Indian automotive giants Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai have started to put their efforts against the COVID pandemic that has recently gone out of control in India. Maruti Suzuki has decided to advance its maintenance shutdown, originally scheduled for June, to 1st to 9th May. Production in all factories will close for maintenance during this period. The Company has been informed that Suzuki Motor Gujarat has taken the same decision for its factory. As part of the car manufacturing process, Maruti Suzuki uses a small amount of oxygen in its factories while relatively much larger quantities are used by the manufacturers of components. This shutdown has been done in order to make oxygen available for medical needs.

Hyundai, on the other hand, has rolled out Hyundai Cares 3.0 relief measures for COVID-19 to the most affected states of Maharashtra, Delhi, Haryana, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu. They will deploy multiple Oxygen Generation plants in hospitals across states to augment the supply of oxygen to critical patients, set up Medicare Facilities and infrastructure to provide immediate relief to COVID-19 Patients in Collaboration with the State government & hospitals, extend support to hospitals in manpower and operational cost for three consecutive months, and augment it’s Mobile Medical Units & Telemedicine Clinics in rural areas to break the Chain of spread.

Under its third phase of initiatives for COVID-19, Hyundai will roll out a multi-faceted relief package of INR 20 Crore that is deeply focused on the crisis at hand. To impact meaningful respite across most impacted states and cities, Hyundai will deploy its resources by setting up Oxygen Generating plants in hospitals, to aid critical patients and help hospitals become self-sufficient in oxygen, and install Medicare Facilities and provide support staff to various hospitals and cater to their operational cost for the next three months and further if needed.

The relief measures have been specially developed with the focus of addressing the needs emerging out of the current crisis.  Hyundai is aiming at helping people and infrastructure cope with the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in India. To ensure timely assistance is delivered to highly affected cities and states the company is evaluating all options to expedite the deployment of these resources on a war footing. Additionally, Hyundai had organized a vaccination drive for its staff aged above 45 in the manufacturing facility through the office of the Sriperumbudur Government Primary Health Centre and will continue these efforts to help overcome the pandemic.