The road to electromobility will still cost many people their jobs – currently around 4000 employees at Ford in Europe are expecting the corresponding bad news. They are expected to lose their jobs by 2025.
With 2,300 jobs, more than half of these are at the locations in Cologne and Aachen, as Ford explained at a conference call on Tuesday. Austria is not affected by the plans. “The measures announced today align Ford’s product development organization and administrative functions in Europe with a smaller, more focused and increasingly electric product portfolio,” said Germany boss Martin Sander. Ford employs a total of 19,000 people in Germany. The US automaker wants to part with 1,700 developers, plus 600 employees in administrative areas, the marketing department and sales. Including layoffs in the UK and elsewhere, 3,800 jobs will be affected. The announcement was preceded by weeks of negotiations with the union. Drastic cut The group missed its profit targets last year and wants to undergo a radical cure. CFO John Lawler had announced “very aggressive” measures at the balance sheet presentation to reduce costs in production and in the supply chain. In Europe, the fourth-quarter pre-tax loss widened to $400 million, double the year-ago figure on flat sales. Experts also see the job cuts in research and development as a result of the cooperation with Volkswagen, from which Ford has the license to build an electric car based on the MEB electric kit. This saves Ford development costs.
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