An employee in the Renault factory
The automotive equipment sector in France risks losing half of its jobs again in the coming years due to the drop in vehicle sales volumes, the slowdown in electric vehicles and Chinese competition, the president of one of the sector’s main federations said on Wednesday.
“Given the activity (…), losing half more jobs, unfortunately, would not seem exaggerated to me over the next five years, it could happen very, very quickly,” said Jean-Louis Pech, president of the Federation of Vehicle Equipment Industries (Fiev), during a press conference.
The French automotive equipment sector currently employs 57,000 people, half as many as in 2007. Fiev represents 300 companies which account for half of this workforce.
Jean-Louis Pech also recommended in turn a relaxation of the European timetable for tightening CO2 emissions standards, which provides for new tightenings over the decade running up to the ban in 2035 on the sale of new vehicles with thermal engines, with an initial tightening starting next year.
However, he is not in favour of postponing the 2035 deadline. “If we start to touch it, we already have difficulty having strategic visions, if we start to take out the only objective that sets the course, then we no longer have any compass at all, and we have put billions on the table,” he declared.
(Report by Gilles Guillaume, edited by Blandine Hénault)
