Fmr. Obama Auto Task Force Head: Cheap EVs ‘Especially Tough’ to Make, EVs Will Risk Jobs, But ‘Have to’ Transition

On Friday’s broadcast of Bloomberg’s “Wall Street Week,” Steve Rattner, who ran President Obama’s task force on the auto industry, stated that it is “especially tough” to make an inexpensive electric vehicle and that due to the vehicles needing less labor to assemble, it could cost jobs. But “we have to go through this energy transition for the sake of the planet. We have no choice. And therefore, if it has some impact on auto jobs, we just have to find — help these people find other things to do.”

Rattner said that American automakers decided “that the early buyers were probably going to be high-end people, because they had the income and it didn’t matter as much that the cost of the car was greater, they had more commitment, perhaps, to the energy transition aspect of it, and making an inexpensive EV is tough. It’s really tough, making anything small and inexpensive in Detroit is tough, but EVs, especially tough.”

Later, he added, “The problem with EVs with Michigan or Ohio, … is that they require less labor to put together. And so, you get into this tension between the energy transition, which I’m sure the auto workers, in principle, believe in, and the fact that it could have an impact on jobs. But, look, at the end of the day, we have to go through this energy transition for the sake of the planet. We have no choice. And therefore, if it has some impact on auto jobs, we just have to find — help these people find other things to do.”

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