Ford workers in Essex at risk of job cuts in electric push

‘All-electric portfolio will require significant change in the way we develop, build and sell Ford vehicles’

FORD has refused to rule out job cuts at its van factory in Essex as the US car manufacturer plans sweeping cuts across Europe.

Union IG Metall said Ford is to cut 3,200 jobs across the continent as it shifts focus from building cheaper petrol cars to more lucrative electric ones.

The union said cuts will be concentrated in Germany where the Fiesta and Focus cars are developed, models which Ford has no plans to electrify.

However, jobs in Dunton, Essex, where Ford’s van business is based, could also be affected, according to the German newspaper Kölner Stadtanzeiger. Ford declined to comment on the prospect of UK job cuts.

Ford is shifting away from building models such as the Fiesta and Focus, which sell well but offer limited profits, and towards Suv-style models and electric cars, which offer better margins.

The company has pledged to spend $2bn (£1.6bn) converting its Cologne plant to handle electric vehicle manufacture. However, producing EVS involves a huge shift in skills. Drivetrain design and construction will be radically different to petrol and diesel cars, demanding new skills and putting existing jobs at risk.

Companies electrifying their fleets are also being tempted to manufacture in the US by President Joe Biden’s $370bn Inflation Reduction Act, which offers tax breaks for investors and for buyers of American-made electric cars. Ford may send some design work there.

A spokesman for Ford Europe said it was “accelerating” its plans to build an all-electric portfolio of vehicles in Europe and they will require “significant change in the way we develop, build and sell Ford vehicles”.