Electrification and employment in the French automotive industry

Résumé:

In France, its vulnerabilities are all the more visible: dependence on globalised supply chains; production overcapacity; and low competitiveness in the context of increased competition. The difficulties in the industry caused by (industrial) disinvestment – from which it has suffered for many years – and many waves of massive relocation to low-cost countries have now begun to stick out. This is bad news for employment with site closures and relocation piling up again. Moreover, France’s delay in terms of the transition from the historically dominant internal combustion engine (ICE) to non-fossil fuel technologies is all the more glaring as the other European players are accelerating.
Comparative analysis also shows, however, that there is no destined job reduction effect as a result of electrification: ambitious public policy measures can offset, to a certain extent, electrification’s negative impact on employment.