Electric cars are a step in reducing our carbon footprint by eliminating the use of gas for automobiles. However, the new EVs could also mean bad things for those employed in the auto industry. Ohio is the biggest producer of internal combustion engines (gas-consuming engines) in the country. 90,000 people in Ohio work in some form of automobile manufacturing. The increase in electric cars means that the factories that create internal combustion engines will not have to produce as many engines, forcing them to lay off workers until the internal combustion engine is deemed archaic in which case the factories will shut down all together. In other words, the days are numbered on the thousands of jobs supplied by the production of internal combustion engines. Sure electric cars also require labor, but they require much less work-hours than the production of combustion engines by a long shot. The big question is will the benefit of switching to electric cars outweigh the costs of the lost jobs? We're talking about two different areas of value, jobs and the environment, yet it would still be an important cost-benefit analysis scenario to consider.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/05/business/energy-environment/ohio-electric-vehicles-jobs.html
4 comments:
It will be interesting to see the effect electric vehicles will have in the coming years. I agree that we could see a significant impact for those employed in the auto industry. I think we will see more layoffs in the future. It will be interesting to see if any new jobs will be created as more companies shift to EVs.
While I agree that a large shift to electric cars may lead to job losses in certain areas of the auto industry, I think it's important to approach this issue with a balanced perspective and consider both the costs and benefits of the transition to EVs. Jobs may be lost in the short term. However, this will help Ohio drastically reduce its carbon emission and force our political leaders to invest in more sustainable forms of transportation.
I also think there are ways to mitigate the impact of job losses, such as retraining programs and other forms of support for workers in the auto industry.
I've always found electric cars to be such a unique thing and really believe they will expand heavily in the coming years as companies look to make them more affordable. These cars will allow us to help the earth as well which I really like as we will have less of a need for fossil fuels like you stated. This is one of my favorite parts about them and really hope to see them more often in the near future in Ohio.
Although the introduction of electric cars may decrease the number of jobs available in the internal combustion engines, the number of jobs that will be created by the Intel manufacturing facility will greatly outnumber the number of jobs lost to an increase in electric car use and production.
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