“Tremendous trial for codetermination”

The transition of Germany’s car industry from combustion engines to electric motors means workers’ representatives in supervisory boards will have to “approve of their own amputation,” Markus Fasse writes in Handelsblatt. Premium manufacturer Daimler, for instance, estimates that six out of seven jobs in engine and gearing production will disappear with the rise of the e-car, Fasse writes. Despite this, “workers in fact call for a more rapid transition to e-cars", he explains. “They know the business figures that management has long played down," which show rising market shares for e-car pioneer Tesla and growing driving bans for diesel cars, Fasse writes. “Employees will pay the highest price in the end if the industry doesn’t accomplish this transition,” he adds.

For background, see the CLEW dossier The Energiewende and German carmakers.