Before the visit of the Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (66; SPD) at the car manufacturer ford its works council demands the introduction of one Electric car-Purchase premium to stimulate weak demand. “Role models like France have shown that the funding can be linked to income or provided in the form of a flat rate,” says an appeal from the central works council to politicians. By the end of 2023 it had Germany funding is provided for buying or leasing electric vehicles. After their abolition, demand for electric cars plummeted.
Billion-dollar electrical investments
Ford had long relied on vehicles with combustion engines and only invested in electromobility relatively late – but then with financial determination, the Cologne plant was converted for almost two billion euros and made electric. In June of this year, Ford finally started series production of its first European electric car in Cologne, which is intended for the mass market.
The timing was bad as the market was in a weak phase at the time. Sales of the Ford Explorer – a type of small electric off-road vehicle – have been sluggish since then. Ford is not alone in this; other traditional car companies are also having problems selling their electric vehicles.
In November, Ford announced massive job cuts plans, from the current around 12,000 jobs Around a quarter are expected to disappear by the end of 2027. The location had already experienced shrinkage in recent years; in 2018 it still had almost 20,000 jobs. The works council and the IG Metall announced resistance to management’s latest cutbacks.
Hope for Scholz
The visit of Federal Chancellor Scholz was already a guest at Ford in June 2023 at the opening of the “Cologne Electric Vehile Center”, is now understood as a gesture of solidarity by the Social Democrat. The Ford employee representatives hope that the coalition of the SPD and the Greens, which does not have a majority in the Bundestag after the traffic light coalition broke with the FDP, can still provide important impetus for electromobility.
Scholz is meeting with the Ford management and the works council this morning for a discussion behind closed doors, after which he is scheduled to give a speech to thousands of listeners at the Ford Cologne works meeting starting at 10 a.m.
The Ford works council is also committed to expanding the charging infrastructure and “affordable” charging electricity. “As incumbent Chancellor, Olaf Scholz must now do everything in his power to support companies like Ford that have proactively embarked on the transformation to electromobility,” says the head of the Ford Germany works council, Benjamin Gruschka.
He calls on politicians to set the course for electromobility. “Let us work together on a future-oriented automotive industry that secures jobs throughout the entire value chain and advances the energy transition.”