Ford Motor Co. will dismiss some 11% of its workforce in Europe in the latest sign of industrial disruption caused by the automotive sector’s shift to electric vehicles.
(Bloomberg) — Ford Motor Co. will dismiss some 11% of its workforce in Europe in the latest sign of industrial disruption caused by the automotive sector’s shift to electric vehicles.
Of the total 3,800 jobs to go, workers in Germany and the UK will be hardest-hit with about 2,300 and 1,300 positions to be eliminated respectively over the next three years, Ford said Tuesday. Germany’s IG Metall last month estimated estimated around 3,200 people would lose their jobs.
“Paving the way to a sustainably profitable future for Ford in Europe requires broad-based actions and changes in the way we develop, build and sell Ford vehicles,” Martin Sander, general manager of Ford’s electric-vehicle business in Europe, said in a statement. “This will impact the organizational structure, talent, and skills we will need in the future.”
Ford is shifting its model lineup in Europe to battery-only by 2035 and has previously said that the reduced complexity of electric cars would lead to smaller product-development teams. The company is also trimming jobs in the US as Chief Executive Officer Jim Farley targets $3 billion in annualized savings while investing more than $50 billion in EVs through 2026.
The company, with about 173,000 employees globally, had some 35,000 positions in Europe as of the end of last year, with Cologne its biggest plant with some 14,000 workers. In the UK, the company has some 7,000 direct employees, making diesel engines at Dagenham and transmissions at the Halewood facility. It also has an engineering center at Dunton in Essex. The company intends to make the reductions through voluntary agreements, it said Tuesday.
The US manufacturer’s confirmation of further cuts at its European business add to a lengthy period of decline in the region. Years of restructuring have seen the sale or closure of a number of factories amid broad job cuts. Its passenger car market share last year was 4.4% with sales totaling just over 510,000 cars, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association.
Next in line is Ford’s plant at Saarlouis, Germany, where 4,600 workers make Focus compact cars. The automaker will cease making the model by 2025 with no plans to produce other vehicles there after that. The company is in talks with potential buyers of the plant, including China’s BYD Co., according to people familiar with the matter.
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