Electric vehicles start zapping jobs

Fewer parts means that fewer workers are needed and logistics costs are reduced significantly. That’s the message from automotive component supplier Schaeffler. Speaking at a media conference recently, Matthias Zink, chief

executive officer of the company’s automotive original equipment maufacturer (OEM), said a major restructuring exercise would see the company shed around 900 positions, some 700 of which would be in Germany.

Schaeffler will be selling off what are described as “non-core activities in the engine and transmission systems business divisions”. “We want to further reduce the large extent to which we rely on the internal combustion

engines while utilising the opportunities offered by the fields of hybridisation and electrification much more extensively,” he said. Schaeffler will also be reducing transport and logistics costs by consolidating its European plant network, which

currently covers five production sites. The Schaeffler announcement came ahead of the opening of the recent Geneva International Motor Show where electric vehicles (EVs) were “a central theme”.