March 18, 2020
By Jordan Fabian and David Welch
Tesla Inc. joined General Motors Co. (click here) in offering to manufacture hospital ventilators in auto factories shuttered by the coronavirus outbreak, an effort that would echo Detroit’s contribution to Allied powers during World War II.
Responding to Pakistan’s Science and Technology Minister Fawad Chaudhry and a tweet from a Tesla customer, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said the company would make ventilators if there is a shortage. GM CEO Mary Barra also floated the idea, top White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told reporters Wednesday. On Fox News earlier, he described an unidentified auto executive’s offer to call back workers to idled plants to make the medical devices needed to treat critically ill virus patients, and said it was made “on a voluntary basis for civic and patriotic reasons.”
Barra, 58, suggested ways the company could help during the crisis, a person familiar with the matter said. GM could use some of its excess factory space to build ventilators and has people looking into how that would be done, said the person, who asked not to be identified describing a private conversation....
