An American working in China during the Coronavirus outbreak

As with many companies, much of our supply chain comes from China and Taiwan. China has more electric vehicles on the road than any other nation on the planet, so it makes sense we would source a lot of electric components from there.

For the past 6 years Rio Mobility has contracted a small team to live half-time or more in China to facilitate our orders. From procurement to mold making, tooling and assembly an American team member has been there every step of the way ensuring a consistent and quality product.

That being said, this winter a member of the Rio team was in China facilitating some new molds and new prototypes. The virus outbreak happened during this time and our staff was put on home self-quarantine (like millions of other households in China.) That basically means, only one family member is allowed out of their house, once a day for short periods of time to buy supplies. Luckily, Walmart has one of the best food supply chains in Changzhou, China so lack of food and essential supplies have not been an issue. Temperature checks and face masks are obligatory now and a way of life.

This has disrupted the Chinese supply chain as migrant factory workers are not allowed to travel inter-Provence to return to work. Luckily, our team and everyone we know in Jiangsu, China is still healthy and is continuing to work tirelessly to get the product supply chain back on track.