BMW’s Oliver Zipse on shift to electric vehicles: ‘we will not have job losses’

BMW Chief Executive Officer Oliver Zipse told reporters that the automaker would not be laying off any employees throughout the shift towards electric vehicles. Zipse stated, “We will not have job losses due to the transformation,” and added “that there will be fully electric production without anyone losing their job.” 

His announcement comes as the shift towards electrification intensifies and amid increasing concerns that automakers will have to terminate employees who do not have training in electric vehicle production. European trade group CLEPA projected in December that around 500,000 workers could lose their jobs by 2040 in Europe alone if they are not trained on electric technologies. The group also said that the number of jobs created would be less than the number of people terminated.  

Verband der Automobilindustrie, or the German Association of the Automotive Industry, warned last year that at least 100,000 employees could be laid off, adding that the impact would be “significant.” The association also said the European Union’s potential ban of internal combustion engine vehicles by 2035 would be “almost impossible to achieve.”

Other groups and analysts have declined to set specific numbers but expect there to be mass layoffs throughout the next decade as the production of internal combustion vehicles is phased out worldwide. 

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