Ford is cutting another 4,000 jobs in Europe as it loses ground in the global EV race
Ford is slashing another 4,000 jobs in Europe as it struggles to keep pace with the market’s shift to electric vehicles (EVs). The American automaker said a “highly disruptive” EV market and new competition are causing significant losses in the region. Ford’s announcement comes as China’s leading EV maker, BYD, is quickly catching up in global deliveries.
Ford is cutting more jobs in Europe amid EV struggles
“Ford has been in Europe for more than 100 years,” the company’s European vice president for Transportation and Partnerships, Dave Johnston, said on Wednesday.
As the market shifts to EVs and new competition arises, Ford is fighting for its share. The company has incurred “significant losses” in recent years amid a “highly disruptive” influx of new EV challengers.
Ford plans to cut another 4,000 jobs in Europe by the end of 2027 as part of its restructuring. The company blamed the “weak economic situation” and “lower-than-expected” demand for electric cars.
The planned cuts will primarily affect Germany, but some will also affect the UK. Ford said in a press release that other European markets will see “minimal reductions. “
Ford is also slowing the output of its new electric Explorer and Capri, both of which were built at its revamped Cologne EV plant in Germany.
Last week, German newspaper Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger (via Automobilwoche) reported that the plant’s employees would be put on short-term work hours. A Ford spokesperson confirmed the move, citing a “rapidly deteriorating” EV market.
Ford confirmed the plans on Wednesday, saying it will result in short-term working days at the Cologne plant in the first quarter of 2025.
An urgent call to action
In a letter to the German government, Ford’s CFO, John Lawler, reiterated the company’s commitment to Europe and the 2035 emissions target. However, he also issued an urgent call to action for all stakeholders to work together to advance the transition. Lawler added:
What we lack in Europe and Germany is an unmistakable, clear policy agenda to advance e-mobility, such as public investments in charging infrastructure, meaningful incentives to help consumers make the shift to electrified vehicles, improving cost competitiveness for manufacturers, and greater flexibility in meeting CO2 compliance targets.
Despite the restructuring, Ford still wants to be a player in Europe. The next generation of Ford vehicles in Europe will be “software-defined” with a “differentiated” design.
The company will focus on its commercial Ford Pro business while competing in select passenger vehicle segments to drive profit growth.
Ford invested $2 billion into its Cologne plant to prepare it for EV production. After the first electric Explorer rolled off the assembly line in June, Ford added its second EV, the new Capri, just last month.
The American automaker has drastically downsized leadership in Germany this year. Earlier this month, Ford lost two of its most experienced leadership team members. It’s now down to two directors from nine earlier this year.
Electrek’s Take
Ford’s restructuring in Europe comes as EV leaders, like China’s BYD, continue gaining ground in the global auto market.
After dominating its home market, BYD and other Chinese EV makers are looking overseas to drive growth.
BYD is already a leading EV brand in key regions like Southeast Asia and Central and South America, but it expects sales to accelerate in the next few months. The EV giant opened its first manufacturing plant in Thailand earlier this year, and more are planned for Hungary, Brazil, Mexico, Pakistan, and Turkey.
According to Bloomberg, BYD is rapidly approaching Ford in global deliveries. Although BYD is best known for its low-cost EVs, like the Seagull, which starts at under $10,000 (69,800 yuan) in China, it’s quickly expanding into new segments like pickup trucks, mid-size SUVs, and luxury models.
Ford’s CEO Jim Farley warned rivals earlier this year that if they fail to keep up with the Chinese, “20% to 30% of your revenue is at risk.”
“As the CEO of a company that had trouble competing with the Japanese and the South Koreans, we have to fix this problem,” Farley said.
While Ford’s Model e EV unit is on track to lose between $5 billion and $5.5 billion this year, BYD just reported a record $1.6 billion (RMB 11.6 billion) in Q3 net income amid surging EV sales. October was BYD’s eighth straight record sales month, with over 500,000 passenger vehicles sold for the first time.
Ford is betting on smaller, more affordable EVs to turn things around with its new low-cost platform. The first EV model powered by the platform, a new electric truck, is due out in 2027.
Can Ford turn things around? Or will it be too little too late? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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Germany’s largest offshore wind farm under construction, EnBW’s He Dreiht, just hit a big milestone: The first enormous turbine is now up in the North Sea.
He Dreiht – which means “it spins” in Low German – is using Vestas’s massive 15 megawatt (MW) turbines, the first project in the world to install them. Just one spin of one of the rotors can generate enough electricity to power four households for an entire day.
When it’s finished, He Dreiht will have 64 mega turbines cranking out 960 megawatts (MW) of clean power – enough to supply around 1.1 million homes. And it’s being built without any government subsidies.
EnBW, one of Germany’s major energy companies, has been working in offshore wind for more than 15 years, but He Dreiht is their biggest project yet. “It will play a key role in helping us to significantly grow our renewable energy output from 6.6 GW to over 10 GW by 2030,” said Michael Class, who heads up EnBW’s generation portfolio development.
The project is a win for Vestas, too. “With the installation of the first V236-15.0 MW, we have reached an important milestone for both the He Dreiht project and our offshore ramp-up, which helps Germany build a more secure, affordable, and sustainable energy system,” said Nils de Baar, president of Vestas Northern & Central Europe.
He Dreiht is located about 85 kilometers (53 miles) northwest of Borkum and 110 kilometers (68 miles) west of Helgoland. At peak times, more than 500 workers will be out at sea building the farm, using a fleet of more than 60 ships. EnBW’s offshore team in Hamburg is running the show.
The installation process is a major operation. The 64 foundations were already set in the seabed last year. Parts for the turbines are loaded onto the installation vessel Wind Orca in Esbjerg, Denmark, and shipped out in a 12-hour journey to the construction site. From there, the turbines are lifted into place. Meanwhile, crews are also working on internal wind farm cabling.
A partner consortium made up of Allianz Capital Partners, AIP, and Norges Bank Investment Management owns 49.9% of the shares in He Dreiht.
Read more: Trump admin halts $5 billion NY offshore wind project mid-build
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Tesla has released a quick update about its Tesla Semi factory in Nevada. It says that it is on track for volume production of the electric semi truck in 2026.
The Tesla Semi was first scheduled to go into production in 2019, but it has faced numerous delays.
Now, it appears that there is finally some momentum to bring it to volume production.
For the last two years, Tesla has been working to build a new factory next to Gigafactory Nevada, where it builds the battery packs and drive units for most of its electric vehicles built in North America.
Today, Tesla released a “progress update on the factory, confirming that it finished building and it’s now working on deploying the production lines:
Tesla had previously mentioned aiming for volume production by 2025, but it is now only talking about starting production toward the end of the year and ramping up next year.
The automaker reiterated its planned production capacity of 50,000 units.
We recently reported that an early Tesla Semi customer, Ryder, stated that the electric truck program is experiencing more delays and a price increase described as “dramatic.”
They now expect to take deliveries of their first trucks later in 2026 and said that the price has increased “dramatically,” leading them to scale back their pilot program from 42 to 18 Tesla Semi trucks.
When originally unveiling the Tesla Semi in 2017, the automaker mentioned prices of $150,000 for a 300-mile range truck and $180,000 for the 500-mile version. Tesla also took orders for a “Founder’s Series Semi” at $200,000.
However, Tesla didn’t update the prices when launching the “production version” of the truck in late 2022. Price increases have been speculated, but the company has never confirmed them.
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Vietnamese solar panel maker Boviet Solar just opened the doors to its first US factory — a huge new PV module plant in Greenville, North Carolina.
The company dropped $294 million into the state-of-the-art facility, which will pump out Boviet’s Gamma Series monofacial and Vega Series bifacial solar panels. They’re using advanced PERC and N-Type solar cell tech, which basically means these panels are built to deliver higher efficiency and better performance across residential, commercial, industrial, and utility-scale projects.
The Greenville factory’s first phase is now online with an annual PV module output capacity of 2 gigawatts (GW). For Phase 2, which is scheduled to come online in the second half of 2026, Boviet will invest another $100 million to add 600,000 square feet and ramp up to another 2 GW. It will make high-efficiency solar cells.
Once both phases are complete, Boviet’s campus will cover more than 1 million square feet of manufacturing and R&D space. It’s one of the biggest clean energy manufacturing projects North Carolina has ever seen.
The jobs impact is significant, too. The first phase will create 460 skilled local jobs. Phase 2 is expected to add another 908, bringing the total to over 1,300 direct jobs, plus nearly 2,000 more indirect jobs across the region. That’s good news for Pitt County’s economy, real estate market, and workforce training programs.
“This facility is not just creating jobs, but creating opportunity, innovation, and a stronger foundation for eastern North Carolina,” said Senator Kandie Smith. Governor Josh Stein added that Boviet Solar’s move shows how North Carolina is leading the way in clean energy growth.
Read more: Thomas Built Buses debuts its next-gen electric school bus
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