Europe's economic crisis could lead up to 80,000 job cuts in auto industry

The German consulting firm, Roland Berger has predicted that as many as 10 factories in Western Europe could shut down in few years times, leaving up to 80,000 people out of work. 

Among the list of car manufacturers who are considering closing their respective plants in Europe are General Motors, Opel, PSA Peugeot Citroen, Renault, Fiat, Volkswagen and Ford. The cause being low demand and production sites running below capacity, which inevitably is leading to increasing company losses.

The main contributing factor to the economic crisis as pointed out by Roland Berger consultant, Max Blanchet was that "the number of kilometers travelled tends to drop because of the cost of fuel, so people hold onto their cars longer."

The report released by the firm also states that the mid-range segment of the industry in particular reflected this slump, while low-cost models were actually up in sales since 2007, and luxury models were down but not to the same extent. 

In July, French carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen announced it would close its historic Aulnay plant north of Paris, while Germany's Opel and Italy's Fiat have also been forced to slash jobs or suspend production because of weakened demand.