Ford to cut 4,000 jobs in Europe
- American carmaker Ford has announced that it will cut 4,000 jobs in Europe (including 2,900 in Germany and 800 in the United Kingdom), or nearly 15% of its workforce on this continent. This plan is in addition to the plan concerning the 3,800 jobs cut announced last year, which already represented nearly 15% of its workforce in Europe. In total, nearly 30% of Ford Europe's jobs will be cut by 2027.
- Ford has continued to lose market share in Europe (30 countries = EU + United Kingdom + Switzerland + Norway) since the 1990s. While the American carmaker held a 12% market share in Europe for passenger car sales, it will only hold 4% in 2024, which means that it has lost two-thirds of its market share in thirty years. The other two American carmakers, GM and Chrysler, also experienced a decline in their influence in Europe at the time, with the Chrysler group having to sell its European subsidiaries to PSA in 1978 and the GM group having to sell its own to PSA in 2017.
- As in their own market (the US market), the GM, Ford and Chrysler groups have faced strong competition from Japanese and then Korean carmakers, but also from European carmakers, whether mainstream or premium.
- Ford's strategy of stopping production of its sedans, both in Europe and the US, has accentuated Ford's decline and the launch of its first battery electric vehicles has not been a great success so far. There are only 23,000 units in the cumulative first 10 months of 2024, or an estimated volume of 30,000 sales over 12 months in the best case scenario, which is clearly insufficient for the current capacities of the Cologne (Germany) plant. The end of subsidies in Germany for the purchase of battery electric vehicles has not helped Ford to develop its BEV sales as it would have liked. Most of the 2,900 jobs lost in Germany will be at the Cologne site which assembles the Explorer EV / Capri EV and currently employs 11,500 people.