[edh649]

This is true of the powertrain for vehicles, however there are still many many other parts which go into a car. Most human jobs are in final assembly, needed here due to the tight spaces and complex customisations in each different vehicle, which will not change in electric vehicles.

There are plants out there where the electric vehicle model is produced on the same body shop, paint, and final assembly lines. The same steps are taken just with different parts/different dimensions.

[Dumblydorr]

Exactly, the article falls into a common trap, assuming too much automation and job elimination due to tech. Looking at Tesla, they tried and failed to very heavily roboticize their factory, when in reality humans are fairly cheap for some manual tasks, and skilled laborers are becoming less frequent.

[GarrisonPrime]

Good point. But if autonomous vehicle fleets arrive I suspect that will no longer be as true.

As more and more people decide to forgo owning a vehicle and just summon autos as needed, the market demand for a variety of different makes and models will decrease considerably. And autonomous fleets will likely want to standardize as much as possible, to make repairs simple and cheap. Ultimately only a fraction of designs may be needed of those on offer today, and the more standardized the options the more likely those will become automated.

[magduf]

The only thing that happens in car factories is the engine is bolted into the car. Engines aren't made in those factories, they're made in separate factories. Changing to BEV cars just means you ship in an electric motor and battery and bolt those into the body instead of an ICE. The only significant difference is having to deal with safety concerning the higher voltage of a battery pack, but that's not very hard (and the battery probably isn't charged before assembly anyway).