France risks losing up to a quarter of its jobs in the car industry due to the transition to electric driving. A local interest group fears that.
According to Luc Chatel, president of La Plateforme Automobile, an interest group for the French car sector, France is not competitive in this area and the government should help companies make the switch. Otherwise, he fears for 100,000 of the 400,000 jobs at manufacturers such as Peugeot, Renault and Citroën, but also dozens of suppliers. Production of electric cars is cheaper in other countries and, moreover, many things such as batteries are currently also coming from far away.
Chatel made his statements at an auto industry conference. He calculated that it is much cheaper to have a car built in Spain or Eastern Europe than in France. Renault CEO Luca de Meo endorses that analysis. Labor costs in France are 30 percent above the average in the European Union and production costs are therefore one fifth higher than the European average, says the Italian. For example, Renault wants to stop producing cars in a factory just outside Paris in the coming years.
According to Chatel, around €17 billion will be needed over the next five years to help the French car industry. French President Emmanuel Macron is keen to show that he is trying to reverse the decline of French industry. Earlier this month, he already committed €30 billion for a plan that also included the goal of producing 2 million electric and hybrid cars in France.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl