► Restructure designed to increase profitability
► Affects Ford’s engineering and administrative teams
► Forms part of wider spate of European job losses
Ford has announced it will slash 1300 jobs from its UK workforce over the next three years. Both the company’s engineering and administrative operations will be affected, with 1000 workers facing redundancy from the former team and 300 from the latter.
The UK job losses form part of a larger restructure for Ford Europe, which the company says will allow it to increase the profitability of its next-generation, pure-electric vehicles. In total, the brand will eliminate 3800 jobs across the continent, 2300 of which will be in Germany.
Ford says the restructure is motivated by its electrification strategy. The company plans to introduce nine new electric vehicles by 2024 – at least two of which will be based on the Volkswagen Group’s tried-and-tested MEB platform. This means Ford can lean on Volkswagen’s engineers, which will save it time and money on developing its own pure-electric platform.
Basically, Ford has designed it next-generation electric cars to be less complicated to engineer and build by taking advantage of existing technology. That means its cars will require fewer engineers to get them on the market, so Ford has appropriately thinned out its workforce to free up some cash. In total, Ford will retain 3,400 roles in Europe that are focused on vehicle design and development.
Martin Sander, European General Manager for Ford’s electric vehicles, said: ‘Paving the way to a sustainably profitable future for Ford in Europe requires broad-based actions and changes in the way we develop, build and sell Ford vehicles. This will impact the organizational structure, talent, and skills we will need in the future.
‘These are difficult decisions, not taken lightly. We recognize the uncertainty it creates for our team, and I assure them we will be offering them our full support in the months ahead. We will engage in consultations with our social partners so we can move forward together on building a thriving future for our business in Europe.’
How will this restructure affect the roll out of Ford’s new cars?
Ford says these redundancies will not affect the roll-out of its electric vehicles. The company’s first Volkswagen-twinned electric crossover will be launched, as planned, in Spring 2023 – and it’ll be followed by a pure-electric version of the Puma and a pair of crossover EVs in 2024.
However, because Ford’s new line-up of electric cars will feature so many common components, the company will change the way it distinguishes the models in its line-up. So, rather than setting its vehicles apart on their mechanical differences, Ford says its new EVs will be ‘differentiated through software and services.’
