Around 900,000 people work in the automotive industry in Germany - for now. Many will be eliminated in the coming years and not all of them can be replaced. Suppliers in particular are already feeling the effects of the crisis. Continental has launched a savings program for administration that is to cut 5,400 jobs there. 1,750 more jobs were cut in research and development. ZF Between 11,000 and 14,000 jobs are to be cut by 2028. Bosch has already cut thousands of jobs. Next year, another 1,500 jobs are to be affected at the sites in Stuttgart and Schwieberdingen in Baden-Württemberg. Schaeffler Continental's parent company Schaeffler has been running a savings program since 2022 that will cut around 1,300 jobs. Opel Before the Stellantis takeover, 15,000 people worked at the Rüsselsheim plant, now there are 8,300. Ford operates two plants in Germany, in Cologne and in Saarlouis in Saarland. The latter currently employs around 4,500 people, but in a few years this figure will be reduced to just 1,000. The Cologne plant is being converted into a production facility for electric cars. This will result in 2,300 jobs in administration, marketing, sales and services being lost. Volkswagen (VW) A hiring freeze has already been decided, and the elimination of more than 10,000 jobs has been announced in various cost-cutting programs. BMW There is currently no news of any job cuts at BMW. However, this only applies in net terms, as the Munich-based company also needs fewer employees to build electric cars than for combustion engines. However, the jobs saved there are to be created in the development of battery-powered vehicles. By at least 2030, more employees than before could be required BMW plans to launch its first-ever series production fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) in 2028 The situation at Mercedes Benz is similar to that at BMW. Last year, the Stuttgart-based company almost doubled its electric car sales worldwide to 315,000 vehicles. However, CEO Ole Källenius wants to save on management costs. Around ten percent of management levels are to be cut by 2026. Porsche There have been no specific job cuts at Porsche so far. At the end of last year, however, 600 temporary contracts in production were not renewed - but with around 37,000 employees, this is not an unusually high number. VW Germany's largest car company is just the tip of the iceberg. The entire industry is undergoing profound change. On the one hand, sales are lagging: In August, 197,000 new cars were registered in Germany, 28 percent fewer than a year earlier. Sales of electric cars even fell by 69 percent. On the other hand, technological change requires fewer employees. Electric cars consist of fewer components, meaning fewer employees have to assemble them. For German-based car manufacturers and suppliers, this means a profound, probably painful change.
Very informative
Middle East Expert, Expert Automotive Exec., Mgmt, Organ. Struct., Project Plang / Mgmt, Re-structg., HR, CI and more
2moIncluding the major effect of German political influence, especially Minister of Economics and Environment, Habeck, Green Party. Not to forget that AI will have its part in all that loss of workforce,