Ford Motor Company

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Ford Is About to Abandon American Sedans

By Keith Naughton
April 26, 2018, 10:13 PM GMT+8 Updated on April 27, 2018, 3:17 AM GMT+8

The Model T, the ’32 deuce coupe, the Thunderbird, the Mustang: For much of its 115-year history, Ford Motor Co. has been synonymous with cars.

But now Ford, one of the great engines of 20th Century American industry, is about to do the unthinkable: abandon the American car business almost entirely.

Just two years from now, a mere 10 percent of the vehicles rolling off Ford assembly lines and into North American showrooms will be sedans and sports cars like the Taurus or Mustang. The rest will be pickups, SUVs and commercial vehicles -- more lucrative models that the company hopes will secure its future as change tears through the global auto industry.

What would Henry Ford think? What might seem like a radical departure for Ford has, in fact, been years in the making. The fuel-price shock that left Detroit on its knees during the Great Recession didn’t last, and American consumers have gone right back to buying sport utility vehicles and big trucks like the bread-and-butter F-Series.

More details in https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...can-sedans

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Ford to cut 12,000 jobs in Europe by end of 2020

Reporting by Edward Taylor; Editing by Tassilo Hummel
JUNE 27, 2019 / 6:12 PM

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Ford (F.N) said it will have cut 12,000 jobs in Europe by the end of next year to try to return the business to profit, part of a wave of cost reductions in an auto industry facing stagnant demand and record-level investments to build low emission cars.

The challenge of investing in electric, hybrid and autonomous vehicles while having to overhaul combustion engines to meet new clean-air rules, has forced Europe’s carmakers to slash fixed costs and streamline their model portfolios.

Ford said it has ceased production at three plants in Russia, is closing plants in France and Wales, and has cut shifts at factories in Valencia, Spain and Saarlouis, Germany.

“We have largely concluded consultations with social partners regarding restructuring actions,” Stuart Rowley, president, Ford of Europe told Reuters.

Approximately 12,000 jobs will be affected at Ford’s wholly owned facilities and consolidated joint ventures in Europe by the end of 2020, primarily through voluntary separation programs.

Around 2,000 of those are salaried positions, which are included among the 7,000 salaried positions Ford is reducing globally, the carmaker said. The rest are workers on hourly contracts or agency workers.

Ford Europe has 51,000 employees in Europe or 65,000 when joint ventures are included.

More details in https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ford-...SKCN1TS1KF