There were two pieces of news about Ford recently. First, it will fire people, mostly in its traditional car operations, which it also has done recently. The other is that it received $9.2 billion in government loans for three battery factories. The money will go to Ford and a partner SK On. Their joint venture is called BlueOval SK. Ford has lagged expectations in the U.S. electric vehicle (EV) market, so the new facilities could help accelerate its sector growth. (These are every major automaker’s plans to go electric.)
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The Wall Street Journal broke the story about layoffs. It reported that those fired are U.S. salary workers. These layoffs could be in Ford’s traditional gasoline-powered car division and its new EV operations.
Ford’s management has admitted it has too many workers, particularly outside its factories. A series of “downsizings” could save several hundred million dollars. Ford is fighting to improve its margins. Entering the EV business is expensive. Some of that money has to come from elsewhere in Ford’s operations.
Ford gave a quote to The Wall Street Journal: “As we have said, part of the ongoing management of our business includes aligning our global staffing to meet future business plans, as well as staying cost competitive as our industry evolves.” Staff alignment is a phrase meaning deep layoffs.
Recently, General Motors moved ahead of Ford in the U.S. EV market share. That means Ford has to battle Tesla’s much larger sales plus the rise of its biggest gas-powered vehicle rival. A new report from Bank of America says Tesla will continue to hold the lead in the U.S. EV market share in 2026, followed by Ford and GM. It is a revision of a similar report that said Tesla would lose its lead in 2024.
Ford says its EV Model e division will lose $3 billion this year. The company expects the division to have 8% profit margins in 2026. The target was met with some skepticism on Wall Street.
One playbook to improve margins is layoffs. Ford has that part down.
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