Merry Christmas!

It's behind a paywall, but all you want to know about Ford Pro in Europe is here:   https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/ford/2024/12/15/ford-pro-europe-job-cuts-layoffs/76590978007/   A bit from the (long) article:   After announcing plans for thousands of job cuts, Ford Motor Co. is doubling down on its Pro division in Europe where the company is the leading light commercial vehicle brand.  Ford is mainly a CV business in Europe now, Hans Schep, general manager for Ford Pro in Europe, told The Detroit News. The automaker is conducting a restructuring there amid a poor economic environment, a bumpy road to electric vehicle adoption and increasing competition, particularly from Chinese EV makers claiming growing market share.  As a result, Ford will "right-size" its shrinking retail passenger vehicle business, Schep said. The automaker recently said it will lay off 4,000 people by the end of 2027 in Europe. It also will decrease production hours for workers at its flagship plant in Cologne, Germany, that makes the Capri and Escape crossovers.  "We are committed to the European market, and actually we want to double down on the Ford Pro business. We want to protect the Ford Pro business and grow it and grow our leadership," Schep told The News in an interview. "This is done to protect our business in Europe, which is mainly going to be a Pro business."  He declined to share specifics, but Ford isn't the only automaker downsizing in Europe. Stellantis NV plans to close a van plant in the United Kingdom, consolidating production at its plant in Ellesmere Port, where it's investing for an all-electric vehicle hub, over the Luton location more than three hours away. Volkswagen AG plans to close at least three plants in its native Germany and lay off thousands more.....  

I hope you're all able to have a wonderful day with your loved ones, stay safe. 

Except when the motorized headrest dies out and it’s not covered.  Estimate is $2k.  So no it’s not bumper to bumper.  

I hope you're all able to have a wonderful day with your loved ones, stay safe. 

https://www.carscoops.com/2024/12/tesla-and-stellantis-overtake-ford-as-2024s-most-recalled-brandsrecall-story-2024/   Merry Christmas for Ford?! 😝 

bzcat, could you also comment on Ford's plans for its "Pro" business in Europe? The OP article paints a bleak picture for Ford in Europe, but I'm under the impression that Ford continue to have a thriving, profitable business in the business segment (but can't quote details).

I posted on this topic extensively before. Ford has 3 challenges in Europe:    1. US GAAP requiring pension costs to be reported as expense at the time the pension is earned. IFRS allows companies to report pension costs as expense at the time they are paid. This is why GM couldn't turn a profit with Opel but PSA can turn a profit in year 1. Has nothing to do with the product or strategy. It is literally just how the costs are reported.    2. Ford doesn't have a premium brand in Europe so it struggles with margin. VW can justify making small margin on a Skoda Octavia because it makes 3 times that on an Audi A3 which is basically identical car. So it has to focus on market segments that are less sensitive to price - in the old days, it focused on "company car" market which were white collar employee perks in all the major European markets. These cars were purchased by the company and given to the employees to use. Employees do not pay income tax on use of car and employer write off the car in full as deductible business expenses. Large companies were often not very price sensitive because they needed the expenses to offset taxable income. Ford dominated the "company car" market in UK as well as a lot of the European countries without native brands - e.g. Belgium, Greece, Denmark etc. Together, it made Ford a major volume brand. The "company car" market has largely disappeared with tax reforms at EU level that gradually make "company car" less attractive employment perk (in most EU country now employee has to pay income taxes on use of company car). For companies that still offer this benefit, it just make more sense to give employee the cash and let them buy their own cars. When that happened, people started buying things like Audi A3 and Mercedes A-Class instead of Ford Mondeo. Ford never really adopted well to the post-"company car" reality in Europe.   3. UK and EU CO2 target. Unlike CAFE in the US, this is a hard target that cannot be cheated by making cars wider/longer. The only way to meet the target is to make cars that is lower CO2 emission - i.e. EV and hybrids. In Farley's calculus, it makes more sense to sell Mustang/Ranger and some EVs then a lot of Fiesta and some EVs. Mustang/Ranger have higher margins than Fiesta - it's related to the previous point but the regulatory framework forces that decision. 

I understand this perfectly. There's only so much money to go around to fund the development of new products, you can't greenlight everything.