Half a million jobs would be at risk under EU plans to effectively ban combustion-engine cars by 2035, according to European auto suppliers, the latest in a series of stark warnings about the costs of a rapid transition to emissions-free technology.
More than two-thirds of those 501,000 roles would disappear in the five years before that date, according to a poll of almost 100 companies for the European Association of Automotive Suppliers, Clepa, making it difficult to mitigate the “social and economic impacts” caused by mass unemployment.
But the survey by PwC also found that 226,000 new jobs would be created in the manufacturing of electric parts, reducing the net number of job losses to approximately 275,000 over the next couple of decades.
The European Commission announced its intention earlier this year to eliminate 100 per cent of CO2 emissions from new cars by 2035. The policy effectively bans the sale of fossil-fuel powered vehicles after that date.
While the commission did not order that these be replaced by battery-powered cars, automakers such as VW, the continent’s largest, have all but ruled out other technologies, such as hydrogen.
Clepa, which represents more than 3,000 automotive suppliers, has long argued that the use of interim technologies would cushion the blow of the transition to cleaner transport.
“Society’s needs are far too diverse for a one-fits-all approach,” said the organisation’s secretary-general, Sigrid de Vries. “The use of hybrid technologies, green hydrogen and renewable sustainable fuels will enable innovation as we redefine mobility in the coming decades.”
Carlos Tavares, chief executive of Stellantis, told a Reuters conference on Wednesday that the speed of the transition to electric cars was “putting the industry on the limits”, adding that the costs of developing the new technology could lead to heavy job losses.
His warning followed a similar claim from Germany’s largest listed car parts supplier, Continental, which cautioned that “social harmony would be jeopardised” if climate policies were not accompanied by programmes to create new employment opportunities for those working in fossil fuel-reliant industries.
“We can transform, but we cannot have any discontinuity,” said Ariane Reinhart, a board member for human relations and Sustainability at the Hanover-based company. “Creating the necessary conditions for climate protection means not only accelerating the transformation, but also preventing large-scale unemployment,” she added.
Last year, a government-sanctioned report warned that approximately 400,000 jobs could be lost in Germany due to the shift away from combustion engines.
But Volkswagen chief executive Herbert Diess said such apocalyptic scenarios had “probably been a bit overstated”.
“A lot of the car remains the same,” he added. “It’s still seats, paint, body work, interiors, wheels, axles.
“For some, if you work in fuel injection systems or gearboxes, it’s probably a bigger transition. I would say for 70 to 80 per cent of the automotive supply industry, there is no transition”
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December 06, 2021 at 12:00PM
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European auto suppliers warn shift to electric would put 500,000 jobs at risk - Financial Times
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