Volkswagen will begin reopening its European car plants next week

Volkswagen (VLKAF) said in a statement Wednesday that production of its passenger car brands will resume at plants in Zwickau, Germany and Bratislava, Slovakia starting the week of April 20, after a month-long shutdown.

Italy, Denmark, Austria, Spain and the Czech Republic are also beginning to ease limits that were placed on daily life to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Around 300,000 nonessential workers are estimated to have gone back to their jobs in Spain’s Madrid region on Monday.

But restarting production at busy factories will be a challenge. Volkswagen said it has put in place 100 measures to keep the risk of infection among employees as low as possible. The company employs about 490,000 people in Europe, the majority of its global workforce of around 670,000.

“We have never developed, produced and sold vehicles under these conditions before,” said Bernd Osterloh, chairman of Volkswagen’s works council.

“This is why I expect our managers to ensure that employees are thoroughly familiar with the new procedures. Taking the time to answer questions is more important now than daily production figures,” the company’s top labor representative added.

Volkswagen said it has already resumed production of parts in several locations in Europe in order to safeguard the supply to China, where 32 of its 33 plants have reopened. No cases of coronavirus have been reported among employees in China, it said.

— Eoin McSweeney contributed to this article.