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Us carmaker Ford announced on Feb. 14 that it would cut 3800 jobs in Europe over the next three years in an effort to cut costs and remain competitive in the electric car market. Ford noted that it plans to achieve layoffs through a voluntary departure program.

It is understood that Ford's layoffs are mainly from Germany and the United Kingdom, including engineers and some managers. Of these, 2300 were laid off in Germany, accounting for about 12 per cent of the company's local workforce; 1300 in the UK, or about 1/5 of the company's local workforce, mostly at its research centre in Dunton, south-east England; and another 1300 will come from other parts of Europe. In short, Ford's layoffs have had the greatest impact on employees in Germany and the UK.

As for the layoffs, it is mainly to cut costs and keep Ford competitive in the electric car market, as well as high inflation in the UK, rising interest rates and energy costs, as well as the recession in the UK car home market. British car production was hit hard in 2022, with production down 9.8 per cent from 2021 and 40.5 per cent lower than in 2019, according to the Association of British Automobile Manufacturers and traders.

Ford said the goal of the job cuts was to create a leaner and more competitive cost structure. In short, the layoffs were part of Ford's electrification drive to reduce costs. Ford is spending 50 billion dollars to accelerate its electric transformation, which is relatively easy to build compared to traditional fuel cars and does not require too many engineers and layoffs that could help Ford revive its European operations. Of course, despite the massive layoffs, Ford stressed that its strategy of turning all European models into pure electric cars by 2035 will not change.

In fact, this is not the first time Ford has laid off staff to accelerate its transition to electrification. In January, there were media reports that Ford planned to cut about 3200 jobs in Europe, including as many as 2500 product development jobs and 700 executive positions, with Germany being the most affected. The layoffs will eliminate about 65 per cent of the carmaker's jobs in Europe, while Ford will also transfer some product development work to the US. However, Ford officials did not respond to the news at the time.

Earlier, Ford also made layoffs for these reasons. In March 2022, Ford split its automobile manufacturing business into two major businesses: traditional fuel vehicles and electric vehicles, with the traditional fuel vehicle business named "Ford Ford Blue" and the electric vehicle business named "Ford Model e". The two major businesses are led by different executive teams and financial statements are also separated. Later, as a result of the restructuring of the two major businesses, in April of the same year, Ford cut 580 salaried and agency positions in the United States; in August, Ford Motor Company announced that it would cut 3000 jobs, including 2000 full-time employees and 1000 contract workers. The scope of layoffs are in the United States, Canada and India. As for the reasons for the layoffs, Ford spokesman Reid said at the time that the company would continue to change with changes in the industry, or that more jobs would be lost. It is common for companies to keep adding staff where needed and laying off staff where demand decreases.

At present, Ford is undergoing a historic transformation. In addition to spending $50 billion to accelerate the electrification transformation, Ford also announced on February 14 that it will invest $3.5 billion to build a new lithium iron phosphate battery factory, located in Marshall, Michigan, which is the first battery plant wholly owned by an automobile manufacturer in the United States. when it is put into production, it will introduce lithium iron phosphate battery program for Ford electric vehicle products, which is expected to be put into production in 2026. The initial annual production capacity is about 35 gigawatt hours (GWh), which can provide power battery packs for about 400000 Ford electric vehicles each year.

According to the European Association of Automobile Manufacturers, European pure electric vehicles accounted for more than 11% of total car sales in the region in 2022; together with models such as hybrids, electric vehicles accounted for more than 20% of European sales. According to the plan, Ford will launch seven pure electric vehicles in Europe in 2024, covering three new all-electric passenger cars and four electric vans; annual sales of electric vehicles in the European market will exceed 600000 in 2026; half of global sales will be electric cars in 2030; all European models will be converted to pure electric cars in 2035.

According to the latest CCTV financial report, Ford posted a net loss of $2 billion last year, and John Lawler, Ford's chief financial officer, said bluntly in early February that the company's costs would increase by $5 billion this year.

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