Switch to e-mobility can be managed without major job losses – VW workers’ council head
Der Spiegel / dpa
Germany’s car industry can manage the switch from the internal combustion engine to electric drives “without major job losses”, Volkswagen (VW) head of the workers’ council Daniela Cavallo has said. "This far-reaching change in our industry does not have to end in dramatic disruptions," she said as VW started construction of its first own battery cell plant in Germany, dpa reports in an article carried by Der Spiegel. While jobs in other areas are likely to decrease in the medium term, at the new battery factory in Salzgitter, 5,000 jobs are to be added.
At the moment, the Salzgitter VW site employs 7,000 people. The first batteries are to be produced in 2025.
Estimates differ widely on how many existing jobs will eventually be lost in Europe's automotive industry during the transition away from internal combustion engines, and to what extent they can be compensated by new jobs emerging in the sector, for example in battery production. And it is not the carmakers themselves, but rather Europe's massive car supplier industry that looks set to be more heavily affected by the shift to electric vehicles, as many smaller companies depend on making parts for combustion engines that will no longer be needed in electric cars.
