At ford should be on the way to electromobility by 2025 around 3800 employees in Europe will lose their jobs. With 2,300 jobs, more than half are at the European headquarters in Cologne and the research center in Aachen, as Ford announced on Tuesday. “The actions announced today realign Ford’s product development organization and administrative functions in Europe towards a smaller, more focused and increasingly electric product portfolio,” said Germany-Boss Martin Sander (55). Ford employs around 19,000 people in Germany alone and around 173,000 worldwide.
In addition to the administration, the development department is badly affected, and 1,700 jobs are to be cut here. According to the works council, around 3,600 people are still working in this area – including the small research center in Aachen that is also affected. Product development, which is important for European business, will therefore shrink by about half. Including a staff reduction in Great Britain and other countries, 3800 jobs are affected.
“We need a leaner cost structure,” Sander justified the cuts in front of press representatives. “No customer will pay us more just because we don’t have an efficient development organization.” The transition to electromobility requires less capacity because the construction of electric cars is less complex than that of combustion engines. In addition, Ford is feeling the effects of the difficult economic situation with falling demand. In response, Ford is not only thinning out its own workforce, but also its model portfolio. The influence of the US headquarters on the European business is increasing. “We know that the demands of our European customers are different than those of our customers in the USA,” said Sander. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t use global platforms.”
Ford had last year missed its profit targets and now wants to undergo a radical cure. CFO John Lawler had announced “very aggressive” measures to reduce costs in production and in the supply chain at the presentation of the balance sheet in early February. In Europe, the fourth-quarter pretax loss widened to $400 million, double the year-ago figure on flat sales. Europe boss Sander, who also heads the electronics division, explained that the brand had to reinvent itself in Europe. In view of the high material and energy prices and increasing competition China a reorientation is necessary.
Farley’s mistake as European boss
Ford stuck like US rival General Motors in the middle of a complete conversion to an electric car manufacturer and is investing billions. The company announced last March that To separate business for combustion engines and electric cars in the future. However, it always suffers setbacks. That together with Volkswagen The robot car project Argo AI that was started was surprisingly completely closed last year and burdened the balance sheets of both groups with write-downs in the billions.
CEO Jim Farley (60) is not uninvolved. From 2015 to 2017 he was head of Europe, until 2019 he was responsible for all international business. GM withdrew from Europe years ago and the subsidiary Opel sold to the later Stellantis group.
The plant in Cologne has already undergone a massive downsizing. Most recently, 14,000 people worked in the cathedral city, three years ago there were still a good 18,000. In Saarlouis, production of the compact Focus model will be discontinued in 2025. According to the works council, only around 500 to 700 of the current 4,500 jobs will remain there. Experts also see the reduction in staff in the areas of research and development as a result of the cooperation Volkswagen, from which Ford has the license to build electric cars based on the MEB electrical construction kit. This saves Ford development costs.
In October, Ford wants to start production of its first electric car designed specifically for Europe in Cologne, with another to follow in 2024. Both vehicles will stand on the MEB platform. He was “very happy” about the cooperation with Volkswagen, explained Sander. In the future, Ford wants to develop its own electric car platform. This will be used for the first time at the plant in Valencia. But it will still be a few years until then. Last year, Valencia overtook Saarlouis as a location with a future. In Saarland, Ford is still looking for buyers for its plant. There are some interested parties but no new stand, said Sander.
The works council had the cutback plans announced in January and at that time feared that even 3200 jobs could be lost in Germany. The head of the Cologne works council, Benjamin Gruschka, even thought it was the whole thing European business at Ford in danger. Now the employee representatives are relieved that these worst fears have not come true. Operational layoffs at Ford in Germany are excluded until the end of 2032. “This means planning security for thousands of employees and their families,” said a statement from the employee representatives. Nobody will be thrown out, added works council head Gruschka. According to him, there were “standing ovations” for the employee representatives at a works meeting in Cologne on Tuesday morning.