Job cuts under way: how much worse might it get?

In October 2024 the German automotive trade association VDA published a report which said the industry could lose 190,000 jobs in Germany alone by 2035 and that one-quarter of these had already been lost. This is part and parcel of the transition to electric and ultimately software-defined and autonomous vehicles. Meanwhile CLEPA, the European suppliers’ trade body, said that 86,000 supplier jobs had been lost since 2023, and that despite the creation of new jobs in electric vehicles (EVs) and battery production, there had been a net loss of 56,000 jobs across the continent.

Comparing different sets of data on job cuts and identifying the definitive picture is a challenge, to put it mildly.