I read somewhere that EVs required 40% less workers to produce. Not sure how accurate that is.
Because they have fewer parts, electric cars can be made with fewer workers than gasoline vehicles.
There’s no way to explain a place like a UAW facility, you just have to work there to understand. 14 years now I’m still not used to some of the shit that goes on.
Chrysler bumped up their offer to match Ford, but no deals have been met.
Wouldn’t surprise me if that’s correct. Think about how many parts go into a modern OHV engine alone. GM has entire plants that do nothing but build engines. Then look at how simple a brushless motor is.
The Tonawanda Engine Plant is damn near close to being empty. When I worked there we probably had a couple thousand people, down from I want to say 7,000 was their peak when it produced more engines than any other facility on earth.
They’re down to less than a 1,000 now from what I’m told, and the Plant 5 building where the LGE Ecotec was built is empty. That was a nice place to work since it was climate controlled. Air fresh as can be, 68* year round.
All they have left are the Truck Engines and I don’t know if they make C7 engines anymore, maybe for service requirements.
It wouldn’t just effect engine plants though, there are so many moving pieces in a traditional engine, multiple suppliers would be out of jobs as well, compared to just making a big ass battery.
Volume would play a role in how many people stayed on board. In Plant 1 that’s currently open, I wouldn’t want to build batteries in there, it’s an old ran down building with broken windows and barely any ventilation. When you’d like up at the lights, you could see the mist from the coolant and oil floating in the air. My breathing improved tremendously after leaving.
That’s the line my dad was an electrician on and I went through there a few times on tours.
Found this:
“The workers who are making engines and transmissions today, their jobs will be eliminated when we make a transition to electric vehicles,” UAW research director Jennifer Kelly said earlier this year. And Jim Farley, the CEO of Ford, said last year he expects electric vehicles will require 40 percent less labor to produce than traditional automobiles.