Ford's latest round of jobs cuts in Europe will mostly affect its German operations but the company's UK workforce will also be impacted, press reports said.
Ford plans to restructure in Europe as the automaker drops its traditionally high-selling but low-margin passenger cars including the Focus and Fiesta to switch to crossovers, SUVs and all-electric vehicles.
The company wants to ax about 65 percent of jobs in product development and hundreds of administrative roles, with German locations most affected, the IG Metall union said on Monday, vowing action that would disrupt Ford production if the cuts go ahead.
At Ford's technical center in Merkenich, 2,500 of the 3,800 jobs could go. The center does development work for the Fiesta small car and Focus compact model, which are being phased out. Ford currently employs 6,250 people in product development in Europe. Its next-generation EVs, due after 2030, will use a new, software-defined architecture developed in the U.S., which means less work for its engineers in Germany.
About 700 jobs, or 20 percent of the workforce, could be cut at Ford's European headquarters in Cologne and about 1,200 jobs will be axed at the spare parts business, also in Cologne, that supplies the automaker's dealer network. Ford's future electric cars will need fewer parts than its current combustion engine cars.
Jobs will also be cut at Ford's research center in Aachen, Germany, which mainly works on combustion engines, at the Ford technical center in Dunton in the UK, which works on commercial vehicles, and at the Lommel Proving Ground in Belgium, local press reports said.