Icelandic volcano hits global car industry

20th April 2010

Eyjafjallajökull, the volcano in southern Iceland, has dominated global news thanks to the ash cloud it has produced which has grounded flights and caused disruption to travel plans across the globe.

The car industry is beginning to feel the effects of the grounding of European flights. Nissan has announced that it will be forced to suspend production of some vehicles in Japan because it is unable to import air pressure sensors from Ireland.

BMW is also running short of supplies at its Spartanburg plant in the USA. The factory builds the X5 and X6 SUVs there, but transmissions and other components are air freighted from Germany and stocks are running low.

The world of motorsport has been affected by the ash cloud. This weekend’s MotoGP race at Motegi in Japan has been cancelled. Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner and driver Mark Webber are still making their way back to the UK from China after last weekend’s grand prix – the pair flew from Shanghai to Dubai, then Rome to Nice and are now on board a plane to Scotland.

BBC Sport F1 website correspondent Sarah Holt is still stuck in China. She posted on her Twitter feed that “half of the BBC crew were lucky enough to get to Europe but there are plenty of F1 folks stuck in Shanghai still working on exit strategies.”

Despite not being directly affected by the ash cloud, gymkhana star Ken Block had a tortuous route back to the USA from Rally Turkey – the driver posted details of his 30-hour trip on his Facebook site that included flying from Turkey to Dubai, then to Incheon in Korea and on to San Francisco.

Meanwhile, Auto Express’s senior roadtester, Owen Mildenhall, is among a small group of journalists who are currently marooned in Miami after flying over to drive the facelifted BMW X5.