VW Will Add Robots as Baby Boomers Retire

Volkswagen AG says it will slowly expand its use of robots in German auto plants as its current generation of workers begins to retire, the Financial Times reports.

Horst Neumann, the VW board member on charge of human resources, says in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung that the company will continue to hire new workers at the same pace. But demographic shifts mean there won't be enough young workers to keep up with the wave of Baby Boomer retirements that will occur between 2015 and 2030.

Over the same 15-year period, Germany's working age population will shrink nearly 10% to 39.1 million, according to the country's Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training. The FT says 21% of Germany's population is older than 65 now, a proportion second only to Japan.

VW will use robots to handle only repetitive or ergonomically difficult tasks, according to Neumann. He figures industrial robots cost about €5 ($6.30) per hour, or one-eighth as much as human workers in Germany and half as much as one in China.