Ford is reportedly planning to cut 8,000 jobs to help fund its EV plans
Engadget
Steve Dent
·Contributing Reporter
Thu, July 21, 2022
Ford is reportedly planning to cut up to 8,000 jobs over the coming weeks in an effort to fund its plans to build EVs, according to Bloomberg. The layoffs would occur at its Ford Blue unit, recently created to develop vehicles with internal combustion engines (ICE), and would affect other salaried positions in the company. The bulk of cuts are expected to occur in the US.
In March, Ford CEO Jim Farley restructured the company, dividing it into the Ford Blue and Model E divisions, with the latter dedicated to electric cars and pickups like the Mach E and F150 Lightning. As part of that, he announced plans to cut $3 billion in costs by 2026, with the aim of transforming Ford Blue into "the profit and cash engine" for the entire company.
"As part of this, we have laid out clear targets to lower our cost structure to ensure we are lean and fully competitive with the best in the industry," Ford's CCO Mark Truby told Bloomberg in a statement, without revealing more details about the cuts. Ford currently employees around 31,000 salaried US workers.
In March, the automaker announced plans to boost electric vehicle spending to $50 billion and plan to build two million EVs by 2026. The company sold just 27,140 EVs stateside last year, but got a significant 76.6 percent boost last month as shipping commenced for the F-150 Lightning.
In March, the company created electric vehicle and internal combustion businesses, Model e and Ford Blue, respectively, to compete and win against both new EV competitors and established automakers.
The major portion of the job cut is likely to happen in the U.S., where the auto major has about 31,000 salaried workers.
The report noted that Ford CEO, Jim Farley, hinted in February that leaner staff is a key to boosting profits.
"We have too many people," Farley said at a Wolfe Research auto conference in February. "This management team firmly believes that our ICE and BEV portfolios are under-earning."
Gino Spocchia
Thu, July 21, 2022
Ford will cut 8,000 jobs in in the coming weeks in a bid to reduce costs and bolster investment in electric vehicles, a report has said.
The Detroit-based company has not confirmed the cuts, which were first revealed on Wednesday by Bloomberg, and could still change.
According to the report, about 8,000 jobs could be cut from the newly created Ford Blue unit working on the company’s internal combustion engine operations.
Cuts, which could begin before the end of the summer, will also reportedly occur in other areas of the motor business and among salaried employees.
Ford will reportedly use the savings to invest further in electric vehicles, aiming to produce more than 2 million a year by 2026. The company is expected to tell its investors of its plans on Thursday.
TR Red, a spokesperson for Ford, said in a statement to Reuters that the company was committed to “reshaping our work and modernising our organisation”, but would not confirm the cuts.
“We remain focused on reshaping our work and modernising our organization across all automotive business units and across the company,” Mr Reid said. “As part of this, we have laid out clear targets to lower our cost structure to ensure we are lean and fully competitive with the best in the industry”.
Ford’s chief executive officer Jim Farley said earlier this year the company needed to find $50bn in profits from the sale of diesel engine vehicles – and via the innovation of the Ford Blue unit – to fund further investment in electric vehicles, of which only 27,140 were sold by Ford in the US last year.
In July, Ford reported selling 76.6 per cent more electric vehicles than a year ago with 4,353 units sold in June alone, according motor news site CBT News.
So far this year, electric vehicle sales in the US have been twice the amount of last year, but as The New York Times reported last week, the figure is still only around five per cent of the overall sales market.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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