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 percent of C02 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 organization’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.”