The cuts represent about 10% of Bosch’s total workforce in the country, and 3% of its staff worldwide. Workers’ representatives vowed to resist the cuts, labelling them ‘unprecedented.’
German industrial giant Bosch said Thursday, September 25, it would cut 13,000 jobs, mostly in its auto unit, in the latest blow for the country’s ailing car sector.
The auto industry in Europe’s biggest economy has been hammered by fierce competition in key market China, weak demand and a slower than expected shift to electric vehicles.
The cuts, all of which will take place in Germany, represent about 10% of Bosch’s total workforce in the country, and 3% of its staff worldwide.
Bosch − the world’s biggest auto supplier, making everything from braking and steering systems to sensors − said the layoffs were needed to help make annual savings of €2.5 billion in the group’s car unit.
Keep making those bike motors Mr. Bosch.
I hate paying 5x for a German-made Bosch spare part for my car when I’m tired of the AliExpress quality lottery but I have to admit it’s one of the few hardware manufacturers I still think pretty highly of. They make Dremels too, right? I imported one of those at an extortionate price and haven’t regretted a single penny, reminds me of how old durable tools were built to actually last.
When I was a kid and you picked up something with a (for example) Sony logo on it, you know you were holding something that was at least relatively well made. Nowadays pretty much every single company gives me marrow-sucking quality-be-damned vibes. And come to think of it Bosch was not one of the companies I saw that way.
Disgusting how they’re treating their workers (who I’m assuming are damn good at their job given how highly I think of Bosch’s stuff), but someone still needs to be doing that job.
What about the famous German workers protection laws and unions I keep hearing about
It’s harder to fire people in most EU countries compared to the US, but layoffs are entirely different. If the employees have reason to think this is unjustified firing rather than true layoffs, they have recourse. They need to provide notice, the jobs need to be cut permanently, and they must be unable to move the employees to other suitable jobs within the company.
In order to avoid said recourse, the company will usually offer a severance package. For example a company I used to work for did a big restructure and the laid off employees got a half months salary for every year they’d been at the company + 2 months paid leave
You mean all of us average earners aren’t buying $80,000 electric cars in droves during this time of insane inflation? Weird!
Not sure that would help that much. A good amount of Bosch’s business is in manufacturing parts for internal combustion engines, that’s going away in any case.
China actually has electric cars with 300km range for under $20k.
We’re not allowed to buy them in the West because it would show us all how much we’re getting ripped off by our rulers.
We really are stupid and paying the price everyday.
There’s more to this than JUST that. Not that you’re wrong of course.
China subsidizes heavily because they want to be the only relevant player in the global EV market. These cars would cost closer to their non-Chinese counterparts if China wasn’t doing this.
In global economics, this is considered unfair, and is usually retaliated against via tariffs.
I need more range than 300km and I’d be all over this if it uses LifeP04 batteries. I work 48 hour shifts, but drive about 150km each direction. Which means during the winter if I wanted to round trip it I’d need a 400km range vehicle.
Hope you gain the ability to charge for those 48 hours, seems like it would open your options
Those cars are 20k because the majority of chinese blue collar workers are treated like 19th century coal miners, with few labor laws or regulations to speak of.
We get cheap shit because of their suffering.
Same is true of almost everything you own, large groups of people stuck in poverty isn’t an accident, it’s on purpose and it’s everywhere in this world sadly
You’re peddling talking points that exist to ensure you can’t a better deal due to lack of competition and artificially inflated prices.
Have you ever had a banana? Guess why they’re so cheap. We still get access to them and useful idiots like you don’t complain because the banana market doesn’t threaten the wealth of people richer than you can comprehend.
This is the problem, right here folks. Think tanks have been working overtime to make sure people like /u/whatamlemmy can feel justified in being cut off from more competitive markets.
Don’t people complain about the inhumane conditions and treatment of the laborers by banana companies all the time? lol
Yeah and let’s not even talk about all the clothes people buy that end up in landfills. Created by workers in horrible working conditions.
On the other hand these probably have some kill switch integretated in them. Or some way to control them at some point which China could use as leverage.
Meanwhile tesla is regularly in the news about cutting off people’s auto drive over payment issues or forcing software updates while the car is in motion lol
You do have the Renault 4 and 5 that are reasonably priced. And I think Fiat also has a reasonably priced model.
We’re fairly limited in North America, unfortunately.
TIL Robert Bosch was an upstanding guy (and, according to workers’ representatives, would be “rotating in his grave”). Also there used to exist an organisation in the US called The Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor that he was a member of. Someone revive that Order.
That’s Bosch from the popular Amazon TV show, the Bosch you’re thinking of is the clown that says “Honk Honk!” when telling a joke.
Titus is perfect as Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch. I hope they keep him around on Ballard and/or other spinoffs in the future.
This is actually good news. Now these folks can work on making trains for each state!
Germany needs more trains, not cars.
Germany needs the trains they have to be reliable
