Ford blames EVs as it plans to cut a bunch more jobs in Germany

[Sherminator98]

https://electrek.co/2025/09/16/ford-blames-evs-plans-to-cut-more-jobs-in-germany

[rmc523]

Aka, we built copy-paste VW EVs that customers don't want, so we have to produce less of them.

[jpd80]

2 hours ago, rmc523 said:

Aka, we built copy-paste VW EVs that customers don't want, so we have to produce less of them.

And their plan B in Europe is to do nothings,

should have just scaled up the size of BEV Puma

to make a new affordable compact hybrid and BEV

 

Jim Farley is burning down the company in Europe 

he seems unable to manage change

Edited September 17 by jpd80

[DeluxeStang]

2 hours ago, jpd80 said:

And their plan B in Europe is to do nothings,

should have just scaled up the size of BEV Puma

to make a new affordable compact hybrid and BEV

 

Jim Farley is burning down the company in Europe 

he seems unable to manage change

It's unbelievably obvious that Ford made a mistake killing off their hatchbacks and sedans, globally but especially in the European market. Farley should be pushing for more passenger hatchbacks and sedans to make a return to Ford's lineup, which given recent rumors, seems possible. But they never should have killed these models in the first place. The focus and fiesta were icons in Europe. 

[Dequindre]

At this point, I think it's easier to count Ford's EV successes than EV-related failures. Ford management has fumbled the past 5 years in just about every respect, and those failures have bled out into Ford Blue. 

[bzcat]

None of the other car companies selling cars in Europe are struggling as hard as Ford. And they are launching very good EVs that buyers actually want to buy (e.g. see Renault 5)

 

Coincidentally, they also didn't cancel all their existing vehicles and tell their dealers and customers to F off. 

Edited September 18 by bzcat

[bzcat]

4 hours ago, jpd80 said:

And their plan B in Europe is to do nothings,

 

 

Plan B was to exit building cars in Germany and Spain. I've mentioned this before in other thread... the fix was already in if you had been paying attention to what Ford was doing:

• Move Craiova to Ford Otosan out of control of Ford Europe
• Cancel Focus so you can close Saarlouis 
• Cancel Kuga, and replace Transit Connect with rebadged VW Caddy so you can close Valencia
• Cancel Fiesta, and then mail in the MEB EV so when they inevitably fail, you can shut down Cologne
• Sell one, two, or all three closed plants to Chinese companies eager to setup production in Europe
• Restart production in India to export to Europe
• Fill in other niche products imported from North America and/or China

This plan was torn up when Ford abruptly cancelled the restart of production in India... still no explanation from Ford why they pulled the plug. My strong suspicion is BYD didn't want to pay the asking price for Valencia so Ford was forced into keeping the plants open. Which means they didn't need India again.

Edited September 18 by bzcat

[jpd80]

1 hour ago, bzcat said:

 

Plan B was to exit building cars in Germany and Spain. I've mentioned this before in other thread... the fix was already in if you had been paying attention to what Ford was doing:

• Move Craiova to Ford Otosan out of control of Ford Europe
• Cancel Focus so you can close Saarlouis 
• Cancel Kuga, and replace Transit Connect with rebadged VW Caddy so you can close Valencia
• Cancel Fiesta, and then mail in the MEB EV so when they inevitably fail, you can shut down Cologne
• Sell one, two, or all three closed plants to Chinese companies eager to setup production in Europe
• Restart production in India to export to Europe
• Fill in other niche products imported from North America and/or China

This plan was torn up when Ford abruptly cancelled the restart of production in India... still no explanation from Ford why they pulled the plug. My strong suspicion is BYD didn't want to pay the asking price for Valencia so Ford was forced into keeping the plants open. Which means they didn't need India again.

The feedback was that BYD doesn’t need

to buy anyone’s existing plants.

 

Also Ford realises that most of its BEV plans for Europe are underwater but there’s a ray of hope. what’s been revealed with new construction process has breathed fresh life back into what lies just beyond C2’s reach…..

 

and that’s why Ford is keeping Valencia

that is until the plan changes again LOL

Edited September 18 by jpd80

[tbone]

And yet no repercussions for the person ultimately responsible for this debacle, Farley. 

[jpd80]

2 hours ago, tbone said:

And yet no repercussions for the person ultimately responsible for this debacle, Farley. 

Because everything he did was with the approval of……

[rmc523]

12 hours ago, DeluxeStang said:

It's unbelievably obvious that Ford made a mistake killing off their hatchbacks and sedans, globally but especially in the European market. Farley should be pushing for more passenger hatchbacks and sedans to make a return to Ford's lineup, which given recent rumors, seems possible. But they never should have killed these models in the first place. The focus and fiesta were icons in Europe. 

 

Most of us here suggested it was a bad move, and that a more cautious, thought out transition was the smarter move, maintaining the (at the time) current ICE lineup while adding EVs and allowing the market to dictate the transition period.

 

11 hours ago, bzcat said:

None of the other car companies selling cars in Europe are struggling as hard as Ford. And they are launching very good EVs that buyers actually want to buy (e.g. see Renault 5)

 

Coincidentally, they also didn't cancel all their existing vehicles and tell their dealers and customers to F off. 

 

Hackett's VW tie up was a bad move and allowed Ford to be complacent.

 

Doubling down and cancelling the ICE models was an even bigger mistake.

[Rick73]

7 hours ago, jpd80 said:

Because everything he did was with the approval of……

Or at direction of?

[Oac98]

19 hours ago, DeluxeStang said:

It's unbelievably obvious that Ford made a mistake killing off their hatchbacks and sedans, globally but especially in the European market. Farley should be pushing for more passenger hatchbacks and sedans to make a return to Ford's lineup, which given recent rumors, seems possible. But they never should have killed these models in the first place. The focus and fiesta were icons in Europe. 

You hit the nail on the head, in my opinion these products should have never ever been cancelled. 
 

[Oac98]

17 hours ago, bzcat said:

None of the other car companies selling cars in Europe are struggling as hard as Ford. And they are launching very good EVs that buyers actually want to buy (e.g. see Renault 5)

 

Coincidentally, they also didn't cancel all their existing vehicles and tell their dealers and customers to F off. 

We all know Ford loves to chop some of their existing product with sometimes no replacement. Absolutely makes no sense to me. In some cases the replacements have worked but not all the time which is quite clear. 

[DeluxeStang]

1 hour ago, Oac98 said:

You hit the nail on the head, in my opinion these products should have never ever been cancelled. 
 

Yep, and here's the thing, I think Ford was right for bringing an end to how they designed passenger cars, in the sense that having all these cars in different platforms was super expensive and I understand why they wanted to bring an end to that. 

 

But they should have just consolidated all of their sedans and hatchbacks onto one platform which would have significantly improved profitability. I also believe there's a way to execute car form factors to make them align with Ford's vision of becoming an enthusiast centric brand. 

 

I mean for crying out loud, with the exception of the bronco and raptor, pretty much all of Ford's iconic enthusiast cars from decades past are some sort of car, be it a muscle car, hot hatch, or supercar. Ford should do more of that instead of assuming everyone wants a truck. 

 

Trucks are great, they're profitable, but ford is getting pretty close to being trucked out yet several of their plants have a lot of capacity on the table they refuse to allocate towards other types of silhouettes. 

[tbone]

21 hours ago, jpd80 said:

Because everything he did was with the approval of……

Haha, maybe that guy should fire himself!

[rmc523]

20 hours ago, DeluxeStang said:

Yep, and here's the thing, I think Ford was right for bringing an end to how they designed passenger cars, in the sense that having all these cars in different platforms was super expensive and I understand why they wanted to bring an end to that. 

 

But they should have just consolidated all of their sedans and hatchbacks onto one platform which would have significantly improved profitability. I also believe there's a way to execute car form factors to make them align with Ford's vision of becoming an enthusiast centric brand. 

 

I mean for crying out loud, with the exception of the bronco and raptor, pretty much all of Ford's iconic enthusiast cars from decades past are some sort of car, be it a muscle car, hot hatch, or supercar. Ford should do more of that instead of assuming everyone wants a truck. 

 

Trucks are great, they're profitable, but ford is getting pretty close to being trucked out yet several of their plants have a lot of capacity on the table they refuse to allocate towards other types of silhouettes. 

that’s the thing too - they finally got a platform that could do that in C2, and then dropped everything lol

[jpd80]

6 hours ago, rmc523 said:

that’s the thing too - they finally got a platform that could do that in C2, and then dropped everything lol

C2 platform envelope is breathtaking, the next step would be evolving to and incorporating the new

electric vehicle construction process. That may sound silly at first but a brownfield adaptation might

solve a lot of problems that existed  when Ford originally tried to develop an affordable BEV.

 

Behind the scenes, there’s a lot of scrambling as Ford tries to undo some of the damage it has done to itself,

not all its own fault but Ford is poor at managing external risk - so surprising with international supplier network.

[twintornados]

15 hours ago, jpd80 said:

C2 platform envelope is breathtaking, the next step would be evolving to and incorporating the new

electric vehicle construction process. That may sound silly at first but a brownfield adaptation might

solve a lot of problems that existed  when Ford originally tried to develop an affordable BEV.

 

Behind the scenes, there’s a lot of scrambling as Ford tries to undo some of the damage it has done to itself,

not all its own fault but Ford is poor at managing external risk - so surprising with international supplier network.

 

C2 has been around in many forms since 2018 and GE1 (underpins Mach E) which is a heavily modded version of C2 since 2020.....both chassis' will likely be replaced by CE1 as Ford moves forward with more product. It will be interesting if there are ICE or Hybrid versions of CE1 or will they remain on a future version of C2....

[jpd80]

7 hours ago, twintornados said:

 

C2 has been around in many forms since 2018 and GE1 (underpins Mach E) which is a heavily modded version of C2 since 2020.....both chassis' will likely be replaced by CE1 as Ford moves forward with more product. It will be interesting if there are ICE or Hybrid versions of CE1 or will they remain on a future version of C2....

Ford took a lot of those earlier  learnings to adapt the Subcompact platform for the Puma Gen E BEV

but as you have described, I think the new Electric Vehicle construction process puts Ford back on track.

and then some…

 

The best part is that any perceived failures still give Ford up to date motor, drive, battery and controller technology

to keep existing BEVs and hybrids fresh and in the chase.

 

[Joe771476]

There's a multitude of EV threads so I'll just insert this here with no links. You can search them if you want details. But I just read a State Farm insurance agent was fired for under-quoting a monthly insurance premium of $400 for a Tesla.  Another agent raised it to $800/month. Also, an owner of a Chevy Silverado EV was horrified to see a maze of wiring spaghetti when he looked under the hood! Thirdly, if you drive your EV with the windows down, it drains your charge dramatically!  Count me out!

[Rick73]

1 hour ago, Joe771476 said:

Thirdly, if you drive your EV with the windows down, it drains your charge dramatically!

Yeah, it’s been known for a very long time that rolling down windows increases aerodynamic drag significantly on most vehicles so it increases energy consumption, assuming everything else remains equal of course.  Reminds me of hypermilers trying to set records during hot weather, which reduces drag, but then don’t run air conditioner or roll windows down.  Sounds like fun. 🤔

[Oac98]

On 9/18/2025 at 3:59 PM, DeluxeStang said:

Yep, and here's the thing, I think Ford was right for bringing an end to how they designed passenger cars, in the sense that having all these cars in different platforms was super expensive and I understand why they wanted to bring an end to that. 

 

But they should have just consolidated all of their sedans and hatchbacks onto one platform which would have significantly improved profitability. I also believe there's a way to execute car form factors to make them align with Ford's vision of becoming an enthusiast centric brand. 

 

I mean for crying out loud, with the exception of the bronco and raptor, pretty much all of Ford's iconic enthusiast cars from decades past are some sort of car, be it a muscle car, hot hatch, or supercar. Ford should do more of that instead of assuming everyone wants a truck. 

 

Trucks are great, they're profitable, but ford is getting pretty close to being trucked out yet several of their plants have a lot of capacity on the table they refuse to allocate towards other types of silhouettes. 

I agree with you and it wouldn’t hurt to have at least a Lincoln sedan and maybe a ford one but time will tell and we will see if they make any changes. 
 

[AM222]

On 9/21/2025 at 5:38 AM, jpd80 said:

Ford took a lot of those earlier  learnings to adapt the Subcompact platform for the Puma Gen E BEV

but as you have described, I think the new Electric Vehicle construction process puts Ford back on track.

and then some…

 

The best part is that any perceived failures still give Ford up to date motor, drive, battery and controller technology

to keep existing BEVs and hybrids fresh and in the chase.

 

Wasn't Ford supposedly doing an affordable small ICE/hybrid model that was potentially an EcoSport successor?  Were these just purely baseless rumors? 

[rmc523]

2 minutes ago, AM222 said:

Wasn't Ford supposedly doing an affordable small ICE/hybrid model that was potentially an EcoSport successor?  Were these just purely baseless rumors? 

 

I remember the gray 3D design renderings, but seems it didn't go anywhere, or knowing Ford, it was cancelled.