In March this year, Ford split its operations into two separate divisions – Ford Model E responsible for electric vehicle development and Ford Blue working on combustion-powered models. As the automotive industry is slowly transforming towards electric mobility, it makes sense for the former to have a higher priority within the company and a new report indicates the automaker could cut as many as 8,000 jobs from the Ford Blue arm in an attempt to boost profits.
Automotive News got information from “people familiar with the plan” who told the publication the manufacturer wants to trim down a significant portion of its salaried workforce. Nothing has been finalized yet, though the move is reportedly part of a larger strategy to fund Ford’s major push into electric vehicle territory. We reached out to Ford in hopes of gaining a bit more insight, but the automaker had no comment on potential job cuts or speculation about the business.
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"To deliver our Ford+ transformation and lead an exciting and disruptive new era of electric and connected vehicles, we’re reshaping our work and modernizing our organization across all of the automotive business units and the entire company. We’ve laid out clear targets for our cost structure so that we’re lean and fully competitive with the best in the industry," a company representative told us.
Automotive News reports that job cuts are expected to come mainly in the United States, where the company currently has approximately 31,000 salaried workers. The cuts could come in phases, though the process is likely to begin later this summer. The move will be part of Ford’s CEO Jim Farley’s strategy to cut up to $3 billion in costs by 2026.
The automaker’s plant in Saarlouis, Germany, is facing a similar fate. Earlier this year, it became clear that Ford will invest heavily in its factory in Valencia, Spain, where next-generation electric vehicles will be produced, leaving Saarlouis expecting "significant" job cuts. Currently, the plant in Germany employs 4,600 people, but "the reality of the industry is that the production of EVs will require fewer people," as Ford of Europe's head honcho Stuart Rowley admitted.
