Germany’s IG Metall warns of car job fiasco, investments needed

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FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Germany’s car sector is facing an “employment fiasco” unless badly needed investments in new technologies, most notably batteries, are made, the country’s top labour leader said.

“Whoever takes the view that the loss of jobs could be fully offset is creating false hopes,” Joerg Hofmann, president of IG Metall, Germany’s most powerful union, told Reuters.

Hofmann said that tens of thousands of jobs were at risk out of the 260,000 in Germany’s car industry that are directly tied to combustion engine technology.

“Even if there is investment in areas, for example battery technology, it is a huge challenge. But without investment and industrialisation in Germany we are facing an employment fiasco,” he said.

Germany plans to cut CO2 emissions by 65% by 2030, which will also lead to higher targets for the car industry, Hofmann said, adding this equated to 14-16 million electric vehicles on German roads by then – up from 7-10 million previously expected.

“We expect that at that stage at least two out of three new cars will be fully electric or hybrid. And every additional electric car is one combustion engine-based vehicle less.”