US power outage halts Volkswagen, Audi production in Mexico

German
automakers Volkswagen and Audi said that the production and functioning at their
plants in Central Mexico would be impacted from Thursday due to the power
outage caused in the United States following a strong winter storm.

The
announcement comes after Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Thursday appealed to citizens for reducing energy consumption, especially during the peak hours of 6-11 pm, after the northern region of the country suffered complete blackouts leaving
five million people without heat and light.

ALSO READ | Walmart reports strong 4Q sales, shares drop on wage hikes

Among
the affected is Volkswagen’s plant in Puebla, where production of Jetta car
would be halted on Thursday and Friday while Taos and Golf models will not be
produced on Friday.

Audi, on the other hand, said that its production would be altered on the basis of
gas supply in the state.

The
reason behind Mexico’s energy shortage is its dependency for gas supplies on
the US which is hugely disturbed due to power crisis. Plants in Mexico are thus
forced to buy several shiploads of liquefied natural gas to make up the
shortfall.

Meanwhile, the
state-owned Federal Electricity Commission informed that the power had been fully restored
following the outage, which had affected six northern Border States starting
on Monday.