Ford job cuts could tally 8,000, report says

Ford declined to comment on possible job cuts, saying that it’s focused on reshaping the organization to capitalize on the growth of electric vehicles. “As part of this, we have laid out clear targets to lower our cost structure to ensure we are lean and fully competitive with the best in the industry,” Chief Communications Officer Mark Truby said in a statement.

Farley has said cutting staff is a key to boosting profits, which have evaporated on the electric Mustang Mach-E and other plug-in models amid rising commodity and warranty costs.

“We have too many people,” Farley said at a Wolfe Research auto conference in February. “This management team firmly believes that our ICE and BEV portfolios are under-earning.”

Ford shares tumbled 39 percent this year through Tuesday, worse than the broader market, amid inflation fears and supply-chain bottlenecks roiling the automotive industry.

In March, Farley boosted spending on EVs to $50 billion and set a plan to build 2 million battery-electric vehicles annually by 2026, after selling just 27,140 in the U.S. last year. Last month, Ford’s EV sales rose 77 percent from a year earlier as it rolled out the new electric F-150 Lightning pickup.

To finance Ford’s electric ambitions, Farley has said he needs the company’s traditional gasoline-fueled models to make more money.

“The funding for that $50 billion, it’s all based on our core automotive operations,” Farley said in a March interview with Bloomberg Television. “That’s why we created a separate group called Ford Blue, because we need them to be more profitable to fund this.”