Ford
Ford has announced it will cut 800 jobs in the UK over the next three years.
This decision is part of a vast restructuring program which will result in the elimination of 4,000 positions across Europe.
The company said it had to act due to difficult business conditions, including intense competition and low demand for electric vehicles.
However, the cuts will not affect its manufacturing sites in Dagenham and Halewood, nor its logistics base in Southampton. Ford said he hoped to make the majority of job cuts through voluntary departures.
“Making this announcement is not something anyone wants to do, and I understand it will have a very significant impact on our employees,” said Lisa Brankin, Ford's managing director for Great Britain and Ireland.
“This is not news you want to hear all the time. Our objective is therefore to try to achieve this through voluntary departure. »
Ford has 5,300 employees in the UK.
The restructuring plan will eliminate 15% of its workforce. The majority of them are expected to occupy administrative or product development positions.
The company currently manufactures diesel engines for vans at its factory in Dagenham, Essex.
It builds gearboxes at Halewood and is set to create a major new facility at the site for the production of motors for electric vehicles.
Both plants are protected from budget cuts, as is Ford's Southampton-based transportation operations division.
However, six other sites in the UK could be affected, including a major research and development center at Dunton in Essex, where its UK headquarters are also located, and a giant parts distribution center in Daventry.
It is the second round of cuts to hit Ford's operations in Britain in less than two years. In March 2023, the company announced the loss of 1,300 jobs, or a fifth of its workforce, most of them at the Dunton site.
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This latest announcement comes at a time when European automakers are struggling.
Among the problems they face are high energy costs, lower-than-expected demand for electric cars and growing competition from Chinese manufacturers.
Many of the continent's biggest names, including Volkswagen, Mercedes Benz and BMW, have seen profits fall this year.
Volkswagen is even considering closing factories in Germany, an unprecedented measure.
“The automotive industry is currently going through a period of massive disruption,” Brankin said.
“We face unprecedented competition and regulation and numerous economic headwinds”
These pressures are hitting Ford at a difficult time. The automaker is trying to move away from its past as a mass-producer of cheap “runabouts” and position itself as a more premium brand, focused on electric cars. Last year, production of the Fiesta was halted after nearly five decades.
In addition to the UK job cuts, Ford will cut 2,900 jobs in Germany and another 300 across the rest of Europe.
Meanwhile, in Britain, the government is under intense pressure from the car industry over rules designed to force them to build more electric vehicles. The issue is expected to be discussed at a meeting between industry and ministers on Wednesday afternoon.
Under the so-called “Zero Emission Vehicle” (ZEV) mandate, which took effect this year, at least 22% of cars sold must be classified as zero emissions. If manufacturers fail to meet their quotas, they face fines of up to £15,000 per car.
A number of carmakers are already struggling to meet their targets, although flexible mechanisms are built into the rules that should allow them to avoid fines for now.
But this quota is expected to increase to 28% next year, then to 33% in 2026, then increase each year to reach 80% by 2030.
Manufacturers insist this is happening too quickly. They claim that demand for electric cars simply isn't high enough yet, forcing them to offer unsustainable discounts in an attempt to meet their targets.
Some are asking the government to water down the quotas, in order to give them more time.
Others say it needs to offer more taxpayer-funded incentives for electric cars and do more to reassure car buyers that enough charging infrastructure will be built.
But Vicky Read, chief executive of Charge UK, said weakening the mandate would be the wrong decision.
“The government must keep its cool and use the meeting to show its support for a policy that clearly works,” she said.
