Ford is laying off about 3,000 employees and contract workers, with the cuts primarily affecting staff in the US, Canada, and India, The Wall Street Journal reports. Chairman Bill Ford and CEO Jim Farley sent a memo on Monday informing staff of the layoffs, with affected workers being told later this week.
“Building this future requires changing and reshaping virtually all aspects of the way we have operated for more than a century,” Ford and Farley said in the memo, according to CNBC. “It requires focus, clarity and speed. And, as we have discussed in recent months, it means redeploying resources and addressing our cost structure, which is uncompetitive versus traditional and new competitors.”
It’s unclear how the cuts may be spread across Ford Blue, which manages its internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, and Ford Model E, which manages its electric vehicles (EVs). A spokesperson for Ford didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
Reports from July indicated that Ford was planning to lay off staff. At the time, Bloomberg reported that the company was getting ready to cut as many as 8,000 workers and that Ford Blue would be affected.
Ford created Ford Blue and Ford Model E earlier this year; the company said in its announcement of the divisions that it would continue to build out its ICE vehicle portfolio with Ford Blue to “drive growth and profitability,” while Ford Model E will “accelerate innovation and delivery of breakthrough electric vehicles at scale.”
Ford isn’t the only automotive company to lay off employees in recent weeks. Rivian laid off 6 percent of its staff, Ford-backed startup Argo AI laid off about 150 employees, and Tesla laid off workers who helped train its Autopilot AI system.
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