‘Manage the electric-vehicle revolution, or face mass unrest’

SIEMENS chief executive Joe Kaeser has a stark warning to Germany’s carmakers: manage the electric-vehicle revolution shaking up the industry, or face the violent consequences that inevitably come with mass unemployment.

“We’ll still have cars in the streets, but they won’t be electric, they’ll be burning,” Kaeser told reporters late on Monday. “The success of Germany depends on this one industry.”

Kaeser has been at the helm of the country’s second-biggest company for half-a-decade and has increasingly used the position to comment on the political and industrial changes sweeping through Europe’s biggest economy. He has criticised mounting populism in German politics and urged manufacturers, which form the backbone of the economy, to make the leap to greater automation.

At Siemens, Kaeser is in the midst of cutting thousands of jobs in Germany and shutting a factory at Görlitz in response to a sharp downturn in demand for power plant turbines. Rival General Electric is also shedding workers in response to the trend.

Yet for Kaeser the situation at Siemens “would look like a small story” compared with what the country’s car industry could go through if it doesn’t navigate the technological transformation to electric and self-driving vehicles.

To add to the urgency, German carmakers Volkswagen, BMW and Daimler are facing the fallout from scandals related to diesel emissions that have led to huge fines and the jailing of executives.

Although Siemens doesn’t produce cars, it supplies carmakers, as well as their suppliers, with factory automation equipment, Kaeser said. This means any collapse in orders for the car industry would also have an impact on Siemens. – Bloomberg