BMW Its chief executive has pledged not to cut a single employee in the transition from combustion engines to electric models, even as economists predict tens of thousands of job losses across the industry.

“We’re not going to lose our jobs because of the transition,” Oliver Zipse said. “Eventually, our Munich plant will probably be on full electricity for this decade without anyone losing their jobs.”

His comments came as the European auto industry and leading economists warned that plans to ban gasoline and diesel vehicles would lead to mass unemployment.

The VDA, which represents German carmakers, said last year that an EU proposal to ban sales of new internal combustion engines by 2035 was “almost impossible” and that the impact on jobs would be “significant”.

A survey conducted on behalf of the VDA also found that more than 100,000 jobs in the German auto industry would be at risk if employees were not retrained.

But Zipse said BMW, Record profits in 2021 And will launch its first electric luxury sedan, the i7, which will train employees around the world to work on battery-powered vehicles.

“That’s how you manage transformation . . . a high-quality workforce that can adapt to almost any technology,” he said.

“We want to keep our people because we count on their abilities.”

Zipser, who is also head of the European automakers trade body ACEA, stressed that he was only speaking for BMW, which has taken a flexible approach to electric manufacturing.

Rather than revamping the factory specifically to make electric cars, BMW is gradually revamping the plant, first ensuring that combustion, hybrid and electric versions of its models can be produced on the same assembly lines with the same employees.

“We’ve been through a decade of transformation, and the basic rule is: You have to position the new technology where the existing technology is,” he said.

“You have to talk to people and explain to them how their jobs will change in the next five years. When they are given a perspective, they follow. So I think it’s a manageable task.”

Layoffs in Germany’s auto industry have so far been largely confined to suppliers such as Continental, which is cutting 13,000 jobs in the country.

Clepa representing European suppliers, Warning in December Half a million jobs could be lost under the EU’s current internal combustion engine phase-out plan.