France: Renault invests in employee retraining initiatives in response to the scheduled demise for the internal combustion engine vehicle  

The automotive industry is acutely experiencing the impact of the ecological transition particularly in terms of employment. In its Plan de transformation de l’économie française (French economy transformation plan), the Shift Project (a French not for profit carbon-free think tank) estimates that decarbonising the auto-sector would result in an almost 50% cut in direct employment by 2050. Acoss data indicates that the automotive industry has already lost 14% of its jobs over the past fifteen years, primarily due to automakers relocating operations to emerging economies. Furthermore, starting 2023, a European Union regulation is halting sales of internal combustion engine vehicles by 2035. Aware of the need to adapt, European employers’ federations and trade unions, as well as the main automakers, including the Renault group, launched the Automotive Skills Alliance in 2020. The players have set themselves the goal of upskilling 5% of the sector’s workforce each year, or 700,000 people between 2021 and 2025.

Transformation and impact on employment

With its Re-Nouveau France 2025 company agreement signed December 2021,…