BERLIN (Reuters) -The electric car boom could cost the German auto industry more than 100,000 jobs in combustion engine production by 2025 if companies fail to beef up efforts to re-skill workers, a survey showed on Thursday.
As battery-driven cars provide less assembly work than combustion engine vehicles, the shift towards e-mobility means that companies must now address the risk of unemployment due to skills mismatches and re-train employees, the Ifo institute said.
"The transition to e-mobility is a major challenge, especially for the medium-sized suppliers," Ifo President Clemens Fuest said.
It is therefore key to develop highly qualified jobs in the remaining combustion engine production and the nascent e-cars sector without stopping structural change, Fuest added.
The expected transformation in employment will not be fully cushioned by the retirement of baby boomers, the survey showed.
Ifo estimated that at least 175,000 car jobs will be at risk by 2025 and that only 73,000 workers in combustion engine production would retire by then.
This means that some 100,000 workers in the car industry could face the risk of unemployment if they were not able to obtain new skills in the coming years, the survey showed.
"Since the gap is already known now, companies have the opportunity to take the right measures in good time such as re-training and further education," Ifo researcher Oliver Falck said.
The Ifo survey, which was commissioned by the VDA car lobby group, did not take into account the creation of new jobs in e-cars manufacturing and EV battery cell production.
This means the overall impact of the e-cars shift on Germany's labour market is likely to be smaller than the estimated 100,000 job losses by 2025.