What is the effect of EVs on automobile industry jobs?

What the science says...

EV manufacturing need not result in fewer jobs in the U.S. automobile industry.¹ A 2022 study found that manufacturing battery EV [BEV] powertrain components is more labor intensive than manufacturing powertrain components for internal combustion engine vehicles [ICEVs], which suggests that vehicle electrification may lead to powertrain manufacturing job growth (Cotterman et al. 2024). In addition, an Economic Policy Institute report concluded that “if the shift to BEVs is accompanied by strategic investments in manufacturing and job quality in the U.S. auto sector, then the number and quality of jobs can rise together with BEV production.”²

Electric vehicle production already has created thousands of new jobs in the United States. From 2015 to 2023, there were over 179,000 announced U.S. jobs related to EVs and EV batteries.³ In 2021, the domestic EV industry employed roughly 106,000 workers, more than a 90% increase from 2016 (roughly 55,000 jobs).⁴ In 2021 alone, the number of domestic jobs in the EV industry grew by over 26%.⁵

Moreover, economic incentives from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act have increased domestic production and strengthened domestic supply chains.⁶ The Inflation Reduction Act provides a customer rebate of up to $7,500 for EVs produced in the United States. The IRA includes additional provisions that mobilize domestic mining and mineral processing, as well as battery manufacturing, to further concentrate EV supply chains within the United States.⁷ This has spurred broadly distributed job growth, with roughly 84,800 new EV-related jobs and $92.3 billion in EV-related investments announced since the passage of the IRA.³ And in addition to benefitting U.S. jobs, EVs are anticipated to benefit U.S. consumers: a recent Gartner analysis suggests that, on average, next-generation EVs will be cheaper to produce than comparable internal-combustion engine vehicles by 2027.⁸

Footnotes:

[1] See Emily Pontecorvo, There’s Surprisingly Little Evidence That EVs Will Require Fewer Workers, Heatmap (Oct. 6, 2023).

[2] Jim Barrett & Josh Bivens, The Stake for Workers in How Policymakers Manage the Coming Shift to All-Electric Vehicles, Economic Policy Institute (Sept. 22, 2021). The study authors focused on vehicle powertrains, “the automotive system responsible for generating the kinetic power to move the vehicle forward,” because the powertrain is the least similar aspect between EVs and ICEVs.

[3] Envt’l Defense Fund, U.S. Electric Vehicle Manufacturing Investments and Jobs: Characterizing the Impacts of the Inflation Reduction Act after 1 Year at 2 (2023).

[4] BW Research Partnership, Energy Employment by State – 2020, 147 (2020); David Keyser et al., United States Energy and Employment Report 2022, Office of Policy, Office of Energy Jobs, U.S. Department of Energy, 141-143 (2022).

[5] DOE Report Finds Energy Jobs Grew Faster Than Overall U.S. Employment in 2021, U.S. Department of Energy (June 28, 2022).

[6] see [3] at 4-5; Leo Banks, How Inflation Reduction Act Electric Vehicles Incentives Are Driving a U.S. Manufacturing Renaissance, Center for American Progress, Nov. 22, 2023.

[7] Owen Minott et al., IRA EV Tax Credits: Requirement for Domestic Manufacturing, Bipartisan Policy Center (Feb. 24, 2023).

[8] Gartner Outlines a New Phase for Electric Vehicles, Gartner, March 7, 2024.

This rebuttal is based on the report "Rebutting 33 False Claims About Solar, Wind, and Electric Vehicles" written by Matthew Eisenson, Jacob Elkin, Andy Fitch, Matthew Ard, Kaya Sittinger & Samuel Lavine and published by the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School in 2024. Skeptical Science sincerely appreciates Sabin Center's generosity in collaborating with us to make this information available as widely as possible.

Last updated on 26 October 2024 by Sabin Center Team. View Archives