Ford to cut 14% of European jobs, blaming EV shift challenge, Chinese rivals

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JohnLookPicard@reddit

green enviromentalist crap again. expensive "renevables", mandatory push to shitty EVs that noone wants. commies trying to destoy western civilization. These decades will be know "the age of stupid" in history books. Dark middle ages of information age.

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yoloxxbasedxx420@reddit

Or maybe not cancel the Focus?

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Guessididntmakeit@reddit

Yeah it's almost as if you'd be making more money with cars people actually want and liked in the past.

Ford might misunderstand this though and bring the Focus back as a compact SUV ...

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The_Strom784@reddit

Another one

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pzduniak@reddit

And it'd be yet another Europe-only electric ID.4 reskin.

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Blyatskinator@reddit

… Like the Mach-E lmao?

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ChirpyRaven@reddit

People haven't wanted the Focus for many, many years.

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Aranka_Szeretlek@reddit

People dont want Ford in general, but if they do, Focus is aight. I cant name a single other Ford model

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Drzhivago138@reddit

Kuga? Mondeo? Transit?

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Aranka_Szeretlek@reddit

Actually, I remembered Fiesta.

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WanganTunedKeiCar@reddit

You forgot the Capri, hot new kid on the chopping block

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Drzhivago138@reddit

I cant name a single other Ford model

F-150? (Granted, that's my US-defaultism showing)

Fiesta? Mondeo? Kuga?

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gingerblz@reddit

As a focus owner, I understand the sentiment. It was my first newish car and have a sort of fondness for it.

But I'll be damed if the 2012-2018 automatic isn't one of the worst transmissions in memory. r/fordfocus basically exists to warn buyers not to buy them or break the news to new owners that they made a mistake.

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ChirpyRaven@reddit

You can't seriously be suggesting that cancelling the Focus is the reason Ford is struggling. Sales of that vehicle in Europe by year for the most recent generation:

2018: 200k
2019: 224k
2020: 173k
2021: 101k
2022: 77k

The Focus sold 400k+ units in Europe in 2007; Ford didn't announce the cancelling of the Focus until 2022, when it was selling less than 1/4 the units it did in the early 00s.

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King_in_a_castle_84@reddit

I'm sure the decline in sales had nothing to do with the ever-growing MSRP and DCT reputation damage.

/s

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ChirpyRaven@reddit

ever-growing MSRP

2018 Focus Titanium price: £21,550

2022 Focus Titanium price: £23,715

An increase of £2k over 4 years isn't nothing, but it's also not terribly significant - not enough to cut into sales that heavily.

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Grabthar_The_Avenger@reddit

And the DCT issue?

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LegateDamar@reddit

The DCT was not offered in Europe, so I don't see how it would affect European sales.

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TenguBlade@reddit

The DCT was never offered in Europe.

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NCSUGrad2012@reddit

Europe didn't get the DCT like the North American market did

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BrownRepresent@reddit

So you're saying they lost Focus on their markets?

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smoothies-for-me@reddit

I told my friend with ADHD this joke, but he got distracted by a squirrel.

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WinterMomo@reddit

Behold: the Ford Powershi~~f~~t.

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totallybag@reddit

European focuses never had that issue because they never got that POS

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monroe4@reddit

Man I would love being a executive in the automotive industry, whenever I fail at something I can just blame the Chinese.

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LzTangeL@reddit

And don’t forget having the tax payers bail you out when you piss away your company into bankruptcy!

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cookingboy@reddit

I've said this in other threads and people really didn't like it.

But it's quite obvious that due to the U.S. turning EV/green energy transition into a partisan political issue, the U.S. auto industry will be very much left behind by everyone else in the world.

By 2030 I do not expect the Big Three to be selling any meaningful number of cars outside of North America. They are already losing market share in China (their biggest foreign market), Europe (2nd biggest foreign market), and are also not doing well at all in any other markets.

The rest of the world is transitioning to PHEVs and EVs, regardless of what the U.S. does. The Big Three will be fine keep selling big SUVs and trucks here in NA as long as our government makes sure they are well protected.

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Motohvayshun@reddit

Um Tesla? GM? Both are pushing EV tech in a huge way, partisanship be damned. This cannot be overlooked.

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cookingboy@reddit

I specifically called out the Big Three, Tesla isn't one of them lol.

GM's results so far is still very lackluster at best.

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maxxor6868@reddit

I spent a good portion of grad school researching car sales. We are seeing a global shift in car power. The US is pushing for more and more isolation from the rest of the world. They will continue to exist selling trucks and big SUVs correct but they will face a reckoning when they realize that tariffs can't push Chinese vehicles away similar to how they try to stop Korean cars in the 90s and Japanese cars in the 70s.

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cookingboy@reddit

I spent a good portion of grad school researching car sales.

Yep, all the data is quite clear and the there really isn't any controversy within the auto industry on the direction it will go.

The Big Three is in a tough spot, on one hand they don't want to become NA-exclusive companies building cars only for one consumer market, but on the other hand transition is much more costly for them due to a lucrative ICE product line, a unionized labor force that's against change, and most importantly lack of consistent support from the government like what EU and Chinese and even Korean and Japanese OEMs are receiving for the EV transition.

So in the short them, the no brainer decision is to stop EV effort and just focus on building big ICE trucks and SUVs, that will make investors and their existing customers happy (and half of the country and most of this sub lol).

Considering this country is fixated with short term thinking, I have a feeling that's where they will go, and the U.S. automarket will just become an isolated and outdated, but still sizable slice of the global market.

In fact, isolated, outdated and sizable will describe so much about the future of this country, and half of the people love that.

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maxxor6868@reddit

Outdated and sizeable a perfect way to describe the us market

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cookingboy@reddit

I think it describes the whole country in many aspects. But that’s a different discussion altogether.

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natesully33@reddit

I feel like it's a bit different this time since Korea and Japan are/were allies, China is becoming less of one from the US perspective. I expect a more aggressive response to Chinese cars entering the US market - yeah, even if it means running afoul of trade agreements with Mexico.

Whatever happens, the car market is gonna be crazy for the next decade.

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cookingboy@reddit

Yeah no one knows what's gonna happen, like the new President-elect is both anti-China but has also repeatedly said he will welcome Chinese companies building factories here in the U.S., which runs against what the current administration is thinking.

The reality is the crazy swings in domestic U.S. politics creates a very unstable environment for businesses since policies can flip 180 every 4 years. I do not expect foreign automakers to be making any big investments in the U.S. anytime soon other than continuing the status quo.

For example Porsche won't start building factories in the U.S. just because of the tariff that may go away after 4 years and BYD won't either because the next administration after may choose to kick them out again.

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ninjanoodlin@reddit

We are already seeing international aerospace contracts fall thru because of the election results

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King_in_a_castle_84@reddit

Chinese rivals

I.e. manufacturers that actually give a shit about making their products affordable instead of trying to squeeze buyers for the highest profit margins possible and holding safety features like fucking LED headlights hostage to "packages" in only the more expensive trims, when competitors like Toyota have made LED headlights standard in an econobox base model $16,000 Corolla 10 years ago.

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m0viestar@reddit

You can get LEDs in the XLT package....

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King_in_a_castle_84@reddit

Lol they're still not standard? Greedy fucks lol

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deleted_by_reddit@reddit

[removed]

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SodaPop6548@reddit

Certainly not the result of their mediocre products.

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ANJ-2233@reddit

or bad management decisions….

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stav_and_nick@reddit

I remember reading about Farley championing their European strategy recently; not the best look now!

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jrileyy229@reddit

Something doesn't seem right... They're planning the layoffs by the end of 2027?!?!?! This seems like some kind of posturing by GM saying "or else we'll do this"... Like trying to get the EU to kick in some money or some tax incentives to get the cars cheaper.

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umbertounity82@reddit

Many European workers are on contact which can’t be terminated immediately.

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V8-Turbo-Hybrid@reddit

Just wonder what European automakers not going to lay off their local European employees in future. It seems like European really in the worst time, as Ford joins VW to cut jobs for save.

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umbertounity82@reddit

Many European workers are on contact which can’t be terminated immediately.

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turningtop_5327@reddit

How’s their Mach-E if anyone here has driven?

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UnnamedStaplesDrone@reddit

It’d be fine if the suspension tuning was buttoned down but if you don’t have magneride, the rear suspension rides like garbage.

I think they were hypersensitive about people saying it’s not a mustang, so it make it feel a bit “sportier” they used some terribly firm dampers. One of the worst non sports car suspensions I’ve ever ridden in

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moocowsia@reddit

Charging speed is a bit meh, but it's pretty spiffy otherwise. Most of the upside of a Tesla Model Y to with none of the minimalism or fascist connotations.

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turningtop_5327@reddit

How’s finding charging for road trips?

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moocowsia@reddit

It's a bit thirsty. I've got the GT performance version which only has 260 miles range. Goes like shit though.

I haven't actually DC fast charged it yet. The longest trip I've done so far has been about 200 miles in a day.

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turningtop_5327@reddit

Thanks

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peopeopeopeo10@reddit

Tutorial: how to "face challenges in the automotive industry"

Kill two well selling models (Fiesta and Focus)
Replace them with ONE electric crossover, which is the rebadge of an outdated Volkswagen no one is buying anymore, somehow made even more mediocre.
Blame everybody else

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pzduniak@reddit

There are two ID.4 reskins now. The second one is called "Explorer" for some stupid reason.

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bwoah_gimmethedrink@reddit

How about removing Fiesta, Focus and Mondeo from your lineup?

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bstyledevi@reddit

I saw the headline as I was scrolling and it looking like it said "Ford cutting jobs, blaming EV shit"

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learner888@reddit

chinese cars have about 1% of eu market overall, and their ev sales are currently in decline due to tariffs

But nobody admits price hikes, shit products and moving labor force to LLC as the reasons

Ford can't sell their uncompetitive (even by eu standards) shit evs, but surely it is somebody else fault.

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lvl_60@reddit

"We must feed the machine that is capitalism"

Aka

"Shareholders want to pocket more money instead of reinvesting and r&d in western brands because hey, we can buy chinese stock"

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Hustletron@reddit

This shit right here.

These shitty companies are shifting to countries that don’t respect labor as much and using Chinese EVs as a cover story.

I hate Chinese EVs more than most but they haven’t done anything significant in Europe yet.

VW and Ford would rather have China make their EVs and charge the same prices as domestically sourced EVs so they can hand the profits over to faceless shareholders that are likely idling around all day in some Saudi Arabian country (that also doesn’t respect human rights).

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maxxor6868@reddit

This is the most nonsense I ever heard. US auto makers are turning EVs into a political stance when the rest of the world is moving towards them. They might have hiccups in sales but they aren't disappearing and will only continue to grow in presence. Ford cost cutting and rapidly changing stance is what killing them especially as they keep pushing to raise prices on their cars. Make affordable cheap cars and you move units else stop blaming Chinese rivals who make up literally 1% of the European market.

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SystematicHydromatic@reddit

Ford is cutting jobs because their products are trash. There's no other reason.

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King_in_a_castle_84@reddit

They have made some garbage models. But most of their lineup is pretty damn solid.

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Amish_country_Rich@reddit

I would look at the push for EV'S as a hint maybe!

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Whatcanyado420@reddit

Hint of what? Europeans want EVs.

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ajrf92@reddit

Not really. Regulations force automakers to sell them in detriment of ICEs. And they don't have (yet) the shares of Hybrids and ICE vehicles in terms of sales. Why are then closing EV plants if EVs are selling pretty well?

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