Ford will minimize greater than 1,000 jobs in Germany because it switches its enterprise within the area to promoting solely electrical automobiles.
The automaker plans to scale back the workforce at its European headquarters and manufacturing unit in Cologne, Germany, by a four-digit quantity, sources instructed Automotive News sister publication Automobilwoche.
The job losses shall be throughout the board in meeting, engine and transmission manufacturing, and in addition in growth, administration and sale, the sources mentioned.
The firm is creating a brand new enterprise construction for its European operations, the sources mentioned.
Ford is pulling out of low margin quantity segments equivalent to small automobiles and compact fashions in a bid to make its European enterprise sustainably worthwhile.
The automaker is spending $2 billion to transform its Cologne plant to construct two battery-electric automobiles primarily based on Volkswagen Group’s MEB platform, whereas ending output of the long-running Fiesta hatchback there. It will drop the Focus compact automotive in 2025 after ending manufacturing of the automotive at its plant in Saarlouis, Germany.
Ford’s passenger lineup in Europe will change into all-electric by 2030 and it expects two-thirds of business van gross sales to be all-electric or plug-in hybrids by the identical date.
The head of the Cologne plant’s works council has known as a gathering for all 14,000 staff of the manufacturing unit on Monday.
Ford declined to touch upon the report however mentioned the transformation to electrical automobiles required “significant change” in the best way it produces automobiles.
“We have no comment on the current speculation about a possible restructuring at Ford in Europe,” a spokesperson mentioned.
Reuters contributed to this report
Source: www.autonews.com