Ford made major changes to its strategy in Europe. Blue oval manufacturers want to move away from the low-margin volume segment and instead focus on specialty cars and electric vehicles. This business transformation, however, will affect the jobs of more than 1,000 employees in Germany, according to a new report.
Automotive News has a new article detailing Ford’s European plans for the future and how the company wants to slash its German workforce by four figures. Employees from various divisions of the automaker will be affected, including development, manufacturing, marketing and sales, and administration. People from Ford’s headquarters and factory in Cologne, Germany, are expected to lose their jobs.
As part of its transformation, Ford will retire mainstream models such as the Fiesta and Focus, which have been core Ford products for more than two decades. The Mondeo, once a popular D-segment vehicle with solid sales in Germany and the UK, has gone down in history. The S-Max and Galaxy, which share the same platform as Mondeo, will also be retired.
Ford wants to have a fully electric model range in Europe by the end of the decade. Before that happens, it will be selling combustion-powered products from its American portfolio, which includes the Mustang, Explorer and Bronco. Meanwhile, the automaker is also investing around $2 billion into the Cologne plant where two electric models based on Volkswagen’s MEB platform will be produced from 2024.
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In preparation for its new electric model line, Ford had to say goodbye to its 1,000 or so employees in Germany. The head of the Cologne factory work council held a meeting with 14,000 workers at the site today. Ford did not comment on the situation and was simply giving an advisory Automotive News a “significant change” was in the way cars were produced.
