Ford has announced that one in nine of its European employees will be laid off following the company’s aggressive electrification program.
Earlier this year, German union representatives first raised the alarm about possible job cuts at Ford Europe, estimating that about 2,500 employees would be cut in Europe, most of them from Ford’s Cologne plant. That still proved to be an underestimation of the size of its layoffs, as Ford announced it would cut 3,800 jobs from continental Europe, mostly from Germany and the United Kingdom.
According to Reuters, of the 3,800 jobs being cut, 2,300 will come from plants in Cologne and Aachen, Germany, 1,300 from Ford UK, and the last 200 from elsewhere on the continent.
Ford had earlier warned that its $50 billion electrification plan would likely come at the expense of jobs, especially outside its home market of North America. That’s not only because fewer people are needed to make electric parts than fuel-fired ones, but also because Ford plans to “slim down” its model lines as it moves toward 100 percent electric vehicle production in Europe and eventually in North America.
“There’s significantly less work to be done on the drivetrain off the internal combustion engine. We’re entering a world with fewer global platforms, where less engineering work is required. That’s why we have to make adjustments,” said Martin Sander, head of Ford Germany.
Ford Chief Financial Officer John Lawler also noted that despite the continued investment, Ford’s engineers in Europe are about 25-30 percent less productive than their benchmarks. This likely contributed to Ford’s choice to move jobs to North America. According to Ford’s battery production announcement yesterday in Michigan, Ford will build ten new plants in the U.S., including battery production, parts production and assembly plants.
