Not only is the production of breathing machines, car companies have to race against time.

    Masayoshi son, softbank's chief executive, announced a co-operation agreement with byd, the Chinese carmaker, to supply 300m face masks a month to Japan from may.

    Mr Son said on Twitter that softbank would work with the Japanese government's "mask team" to give priority to providing two different masks to health workers to address shortages caused by the outbreak.

    As one of the world's largest new-energy car companies, byd gained a new status during the outbreak -- as the world's largest facemask factory.Today, byd's mask production line is running at full capacity, with a daily production capacity of 5 million each.

Ventilator: I'm having a hard time

    As the epidemic continues to spread, many countries are learning from the experience of Chinese companies in turning over medical supplies and coordinating the transformation of their manufacturers into producing equipment such as ventilators that are in short supply.

    In this outbreak, the ventilator plays a very important role.Novel coronavirus can damage the function of the lungs, producing a lot of mucus in the lungs, which blocks the absorption of oxygen, reduces the blood oxygen saturation concentration, further damage the body.The role of the ventilator is to deliver oxygen in vitro, ensure the oxygen content in the blood, maintain the demand for life activities of critically ill patients, for more clinical treatment means to buy time.

    In other words, for severe patients, ventilator has become an indispensable device in the treatment of patients with new crowns.

    Earlier this month, CNN reported that New York governor Andrew cuomo said that at the current rate of consumption, the city's critically ill patients could run out of ventilators within six days.

    As the epidemic spreads around the world, the ventilator gap is huge.According to the American society of critical care medicine, the gap of ventilators in the United States may reach 760,000 units, and the gap of ventilators in Italy, Spain, Britain and Germany could reach millions.

    However, different from the common epidemic prevention supplies such as masks, ventilator, as a costly, long production cycle and complex supply chain, is usually regarded as intensive care unit equipment, so the capacity and output are largely limited.

    It can take up to 40 days to produce a ventilator and requires trained staff to assemble it.Moreover, a ventilator is made up of a wide variety of parts from suppliers all over the world, meaning it is not easy to increase production in the short term in an outbreak.

    Car companies in Europe and the United States have switched to production ventilator

    The UK was the first country to encourage car companies to switch to ventilators.

    In mid-march, prime minister Boris Johnson spoke to companies including ford, Honda, Rolls-Royce and excavator maker JCB about whether their production lines could be used for medical devices, including ventilators.The move comes after the department of health revealed that in a worst-case scenario the NHS would need an extra 20,000 ventilators, compared with around 5,000 for adults and 900 for children.

    Now, vauxhall, Honda and Toyota are preparing to build breathing machines and other equipment.

    In Italy, the epicenter of the pandemic, the government has embarked on a major increase in the number of ICU beds, many of which will require ventilators to keep patients breathing.

    The FCA, ferrari and parts maker maryli are working with medical equipment maker Siare Engineering in northern Italy to make parts for the ventilator and possibly help with its assembly.Italy has asked Siare to increase its monthly production of ventilators from 160 to 500 after the outbreak crippled the health system.

    German car company Volkswagen is working with other manufacturers around the world to explore the use of 3D printing to make breathing machines in the face of a growing outbreak in Germany, Reuters said.Vw has set up a task force to look at how 3D printing can be used to help make ventilators and other medical devices.It is worth noting that Volkswagen owns more than 125 industrial 3D printers.

    A similar script is playing out across the Atlantic.The us has invoked the defence production act, which allows car companies such as ford, general motors and tesla to make ventilators.

    The Wall Street journal previously reported that gm is working with Ventec Life Systems, a ventilator maker, to put 1,000 workers to work on the machines at its parts plant in indiana, with an expected capacity of 10,000 a month.Instead of retrofitting gm's existing production lines, the two companies are said to be using spare factory space to build ventilator production lines, and the main technology will still be provided by Ventec.Gm says it will deliver 6,000 units in late April.

    Also involved in the breathing mechanism was the ford.Ford works with GE healthcare and 3M to produce urgently needed medical equipment and supplies, such as ventilators, for health care workers, first responders and patients.Ford had previously planned to produce 1,500 ventilators by the end of April, 12,000 by the end of may and 50,000 by July 4.In addition, UAW workers will participate on a voluntary basis, working three shifts.

    Last week, tesla posted a short, roughly four-minute video on YouTube showing off the tesla ventilator.The most important feature of the ventilator is that it is possible to complete the prototype of the ventilator simply by using the existing parts in hand.As Lars Moravy, tesla's vice President of engineering, puts it, tesla can help medical institutions without encroachment on medical equipment.

    In addition to the prototype, musk also said on twitter that tesla plans to restart its plant in buffalo, New York, to produce the machines in partnership with Irish ventilator maker medtronic.

    In fact, the car company "war" production mobilization is not new.Historically, American automakers have helped the government produce much-needed equipment.During world war ii, general motors, ford and other automakers rebuilt car plants to make tanks, planes and other military equipment and weapons, earning Detroit the nickname "the Arsenal of democracy."

    Although a number of car companies are full of confidence to join the ventilator production war, but there are still experts and media pessimistic about this view.Earlier, Niklas Kuczaty, head of medical technology at the German association of mechanical manufacturers, said it was unrealistic to produce complex medical products such as ventilators in just a few months.In addition to the production technology threshold mentioned above, automobile companies also face other challenges in producing respirators, such as quickly completing the audit process to obtain production qualification.

    But does this mean that the car companies' switch to a ventilator is unreliable?Apparently not.Carmakers are strong enough to turn out most of the world's industrial goods, but the fastest way to do so is to take advantage of existing resources, such as joining the industry as a component supplier or working with a medical-equipment maker.Time is running out, after all.