Bosch Cuts 13,000 Jobs in Germany: How Global Competition and EV Transition Are Reshaping the Automotive Industry

Germany's Bosch To Cut 13,000 Jobs In Blow To Auto Sector

German industrial powerhouse Bosch announced Thursday plans to eliminate 13,000 positions, primarily in its automotive division, dealing another significant blow to Germany's struggling automobile industry.

The automotive sector in Europe's largest economy faces mounting challenges including intense competition in the Chinese market, diminished consumer demand, and a slower-than-anticipated transition to electric vehicles.

These job reductions, all occurring within Germany, represent approximately 10 percent of Bosch's German workforce and 3 percent of its global employee base.

As the world's largest automotive supplier, manufacturing components from braking systems to steering mechanisms and sensors, Bosch stated these workforce reductions are essential to achieve annual cost savings of 2.5 billion euros ($2.9 billion) within its automotive segment.

"Consumer demand for our products is increasingly shifting toward regions outside Europe," explained Stefan Grosch, Bosch's head of industrial relations. "We must align our operations with the locations of our markets and customers."

Employee representatives have pledged to oppose these cuts, describing them as "unprecedented" in scale.

Bosch had previously announced 9,000 job reductions since last year, while other automotive suppliers including Schaeffler and Continental have similarly reduced their workforces by thousands.

Major automakers are also experiencing significant challenges, with Volkswagen – Europe's largest automobile manufacturer with its 10 brands – planning substantial workforce reductions across Germany as sales and profits decline.

Porsche, a Volkswagen subsidiary, recently announced delays to its electric vehicle expansion due to insufficient market demand.

The transition to electric vehicles represents a critical challenge for the industry, with many companies having invested heavily in the shift despite electric vehicles failing to gain substantial market traction across Europe.

"Electromobility hasn't developed at the pace originally projected," noted Marco Zehe, Bosch's head of electrified motion. "This has resulted in significant overcapacity, particularly throughout Europe and especially within Germany."

Simultaneously, fierce price competition in China is eroding profit margins for automotive component manufacturers, limiting their strategic options.

"The entire automotive industry faces intense price pressures and competition," Zehe added. "This affects both vehicle manufacturers and their component suppliers."

Long-term trends indicate automakers increasingly prefer sourcing components from local partners in their international markets, threatening the demand for German-manufactured automotive parts.

"The trend toward localization cannot be stopped," Markus Heyn, who leads Bosch Mobility, told the Stuttgarter Zeitung newspaper earlier this month. "The era when Germany could produce substantially for global markets has ended."

While acknowledging the "very tense" situation within Germany's automotive sector, Frank Sell, head of the Bosch Mobility works council, promised to challenge the planned reductions.

"We completely reject these historically unprecedented job eliminations," he stated, highlighting that Bosch offered no assurances against closing German facilities.

"Bosch is not only violating the trust of those who built this company into a successful enterprise but also creating social devastation across numerous regions," Sell emphasized.

In a media briefing, Grosch affirmed Germany remains "central" to Bosch's future plans.

"We maintain our commitment to Germany as a business location and to Europe more broadly. We're doing everything possible to continuously enhance our competitiveness through our own initiatives," he concluded.