As efforts to tackle the crisis in Japan continues, BMW and Volkswagen have decided to bring home hundreds of staff to Europe.

Volkswagen has 600 sales and servicing staff in Japan and around 50 of these employees have made their way back to the UK. These German national workers have also come with their families, bringing the number of evacuees to approximately 200.

There are 750 German workers in Japan for BMW and 50 of them took the opportunity to return to Europe when offered earlier in the week.

Tim Abbot, BMW GB's managing director told Car Enthusiast: "The safety of our workforce is the primary concern for BMW at this difficult time for Japan, and our thoughts are with everyone affected by this disaster."

Abbot went on to explain the effects of the earthquake to BMW car production: "We rely on semi-conductors for the electronic technology in our cars and many of these components come from Japan. At present, BMW and MINI has sufficient stock to see us through the next seven to 10 days of car manufacturing. After that, BMW will have to take a view as to how and where we can obtain sufficient numbers of these parts to keep production flowing."

Alisdair Suttie - 18 Mar 2011