On the Dash:
- Ford is cutting 1,000 jobs and reducing shifts at its Cologne EV plant due to weak demand in Europe.
- EV adoption in Europe is far below projections, with electric vehicles making up only 5.6% of the market through July.
- These layoffs add to Ford’s ongoing European restructuring, bringing total workforce reductions to 18%.
Ford Motor Co. will cut 1,000 jobs at its electric vehicle plant in Cologne, Germany, the automaker said on Tuesday. The Cologne facility will move from two daily shifts to a single-shift operation beginning in January. The automaker pointed to weak demand for EVs in Europe and will downsize production output to better align with the current consumer demand. Ford will offer voluntary redundancy packages to impacted employees.
In 2023, Ford invested $2 billion to transform the Cologne plant into a state-of-the-art, carbon-neutral facility to specialize in EV development. But EV adoption in Europe has been significantly slower than initially anticipated. Analysts had expected EVs to account for 35% of European new vehicle registrations by the end of 2025, but they currently represent just 15.6% through July. Growth is up 12.5% year-over-year, with experts now forecasting a 20% market share by year-end.
The layoff announcement follows less than a full year after Ford outlined a drastic restructuring plan for its European operations. The plan included closing its German-based Saarlouis plant by the end of 2025 and cutting 4,000 jobs in Europe and the UK by 2027, with the deepest cuts occurring in Germany. These newly announced cuts will be on top of the original layoffs, resulting in an 18% reduction of the European workforce.
