The Ford plant in Saarlouis is on the verge of collapse. An entire car factory could disappear in a structurally weak region of Germany. This news even made the evening TV news this week. Because the symbolic effect that emanates from Saarlouis has much more impact than the spotty job losses that car manufacturers and suppliers have been reporting for years. The question is obvious: is Ford’s decision not to build a new electric car in the Saar region but in Valencia, Spain, the beginning of a major job cut in Germany that has long been feared as a result of the switch from combustion engines to electric drives?
Marcus Theurer
Editor in the economy of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.
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“This plant is very, very important for Saarland,” says Benjamin Gruschka, Chairman of the General Works Council at Ford in Germany. In Saarlouis, Ford itself has 4,600 industrial jobs on the brink and a further 1,300 jobs at supplier companies in the immediate vicinity of the plant. The American group announced on Wednesday that it would prefer Valencia to Saarlouis. Saarlouis does not get a new mainstay in the future of the car. The compact model Focus with a combustion engine under the hood that is currently being manufactured there will be phased out in 2025. “We will certainly not get another model anymore,” says the works council chairman Gruschka. Perhaps there is a perspective for the plant as a supplier of components. But that’s just hope so far.