The future for the backbone of the German economy is looking bleak. A look at the impacts of climate policy on the German car industry.
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By AR Göhring at EIKE
(Text translated/edited by P. Gosselin)

Not only at Daimler, Volkswagen and others, but elsewhere the working people have to fear for their jobs after Brussels and Berlin have declared war on Germany’s most important industry. Now the automotive supply chain is also being hard hit.

Berlin, Brussels tighten the screws

The value-adding industry has already been badly shaken by the exaggerated, simply senseless corona measures of the Merkel IV government. Now the Brussels EU government (including former German minister Ursula von der Leyen) are tightening the screws even more as they love to ban internal combustion engines completely. The EU has just tightened the rules for limiting CO2 emissions. Not only the well-known car manufacturers are under pressure, but also their suppliers, hardly known by name, such as Mahle from Stuttgart.

Mass job losses

The globally producing parts manufacturer still has around 12,000 employees in Germany (72,000 globally). In the country, 2,000 workers are expected to lose their jobs, globally 7,600, and this despite a partial switch to e-car parts. It’s not enough, says a works council member, because there is no concept for the domestic combustion engine factories to convert over to electrical parts.

E-mobility not economically feasible

Why should there be, one might ask, since hardly anyone is buying e-cars anyway? Significant sales figures can only be achieved through massive tax incentives, but the government cannot keep this up forever. In other words, a complete “transformation” to e-mobility cannot be economically feasible.

It would make sense to downsize existing locations and let them settle for the winter. Only develop and produce burners in climate fanaticism-proof countries like Russia, Mexico and possibly the USA. As soon as Merkel’s energy transition in Germany crashes for all to feel and a rationally acting government comes to the helm again, the locations could be rebuilt and production could be brought back.

Highly skilled workers risk going idle

The problem is that machines and buildings are only a part of the company portfolio. The most important factor of a medium-sized manufacturer, however, is its skilled workforce, whose skills, acquired and honed over decades, are not so easily exported or imported. So Mahle and Co. would have to send their Swabian skilled workers with good programs and a lot of money to a safe foreign country for a few years. Is that possible? With difficulty. Home, mortgage, children, school, friends, family … skilled workers are people.

Mahle is unfortunately not the only supplier who is being needlessly driven out or exiled by the misguided caste of the political media. Well-known companies such tire manufacturer Continental will also have to take massive hits – Continental plans to cut 30,000 jobs worldwide.

via NoTricksZone

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October 3, 2020 at 09:03AM