Shift To EV Will Cost Engine Production Jobs: Continental CEO

Continental had announced last month that it would increase spending on electric-car components over the coming years but strongly believes that it will be able to fend off any sizable effect on its revenue through additional sales from new R&D projects.

German weekly paper Welt am Sonntag quoted Degenhart as saying, "Due to the low added value, production jobs will be lost." The situation, however, may not be as grim as it may seem; he added that many of those jobs would be offset by new positions related to electro-mobility. He went on to say it was too early to comment whether the number of jobs lost would be greater or smaller than the number of new positions created.

Degenhart explained, "There is enough time to design the process such that the blow is softened and major pain can be avoided." According to Welt am Sonntag, out of 218,000 jobs at Continental nearly 30,000 are dependent on combustion engines.

Known to openly express his opinions, the German company's CEO had previously predicted the likely demise of diesel engines in the US along with Japan and China. Considering the limited one to three percent market share of diesels in the aforementioned countries, the possibility can not be ruled out.