Ford is making major changes to its Europe strategy. The Blue Oval wants to say goodbye more and more to low-margin volume segments and instead concentrate on niche vehicles and electric cars. According to a new report, the company’s transformation will cost more than 1,000 jobs in Germany. According to dpa information, up to 3,200 jobs could even be lost. That’s what the deputy head of the works council at the Ford works, Katharina von Hebe, said on Monday in Cologne to the dpa.
Automotive News has published an article detailing Ford’s future plans for Europe and how the company intends to cut a four-digit number of jobs in Germany. It will meet employees from various departments of the automaker, including development, production, marketing and sales, and administration. Workers at Ford’s headquarters and plant in Cologne are expected to lose their jobs.
Part of the transformation is the discontinuation of classic, mainstream models such as the Fiesta and Focus, which have been the company’s absolute key products for more than 20 years. It’s already over for the Mondeo and the end for the Vans S-Max and Galaxy has already been decided.
Ford plans to offer an all-electric model range in Europe by the end of the decade. Until then, cars with combustion engines from the American portfolio will be offered. These include the Mustang, the Explorer and, from the end of this year, the Bronco off-roader.
Meanwhile, the carmaker is investing around two billion euros in its Cologne plant, where two new electric models based on Volkswagen’s MEB platform are to be manufactured from 2024.
As part of the conversion of the model range to a purely electric vehicle fleet, Ford will lay off 1,000 or more of its employees in Germany. The head of the works council at the Cologne plant today held a meeting with all 14,000 workers at the site. Ford made no comment on the situation, only telling Automotive News that there will be a “significant shift” in the way cars are made.
This article was written by Anthony Karr
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The original for this article “Ford plans job cuts: Jobs in Germany also affected” comes from Motor1.com.
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