Ford has opened Europe’s first electric vehicle production plant in Cologne. This is the prelude to a strategic shift: In the future, cheap Fiesta models will not roll off the assembly line in cities, but expensive electric SUVs.
It looks a bit staged: The body of the all-new all-electric SUV, the Ford Explorer, hangs from a conveyor belt. Still hanging on the treadmill behind the spotlight is the frame of the humble Fiesta, which will soon give way to a lifestyle car twice its size. Photographers, camera teams and journalists waited in a designated area until Chancellor Olaf Schulz and Ford Motor Co. chairman of the supervisory board William Clay Ford — great-grandson of the company founder — emerged.
Two Ford employees and a production employee are waiting by the SUV body. Communicating directly with them is probably what the speaker meant. During the conversation, engineer Sami Özberk explained that the family has been with the company for three generations. This is a photo shoot, and reporters are not allowed to ask questions.
put into production in september
Sadness was in the air on Monday when Olaf Scholz and William Clay Ford pressed the digital buzzer to symbolically start Ford’s electric car production in Europe . Schultz spoke of a “new era.” Write history, like 93 years ago, when Henry Ford and Konrad Adenauer, then mayor of Cologne, put Ford’s first production line into production.
Should leave even now. Factory halls are being completely restructured – from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles. The last Fiesta will roll off the assembly line here in early July. The SUV Explorer will be launched in early September and the first such models will be delivered next year. Then 250,000 electric vehicles will be produced here every year.
Against the backdrop that other American automakers have left their European production bases, Ford is investing 2 billion euros in a transformation, as the head of the American parent company William Ford emphasized: “We decided to stay, invest and find the shape of the future — to breathe new life into Ford.”
after strategy change
With the Explorer, Ford announced a new strategy in Europe: after the Fiesta, the Focus will no longer be produced. There are significantly fewer models, but more expensive ones. The Explorer will cost as much as 45,000 euros, twice as much as the current Fiesta.
A certain risk, agrees Helena Wisbert of the University of Wolfsburg. For electric cars produced in Europe, it is currently difficult to make a profit. One still depends on the supply of vital components. Ford, for example, is working with Volkswagen to provide them with components for the ID.3, such as the expensive battery.
Ford Explorer at the Cologne plant – the electric car should cost upwards of 45,000 euros.
However, this is a positive sign because, according to automotive experts, it is now important to get to the market quickly – and to use existing solutions. Because competition from China is pushing into the European market. They have developed models there that are produced entirely in-house, so they have 100% cost control. Sales prices in the Asian market are already much cheaper.
Cologne’s future
Still, there’s a silver lining for Ford’s employees. This spring, Cologne decided to cut 2,300 of its 14,000 jobs to secure the site. It remains that way despite the new offerings. For the remaining staff, the change of strategy is now the future of the job — at least that’s the hope of many.
“Those on the assembly line want the future to be with us, and with them,” Prime Minister Scholz appealed. “They want to be part of technologies that are important for the future.” Engineer Sami Özberk’s job is secured by the production of the Explorer. Now the new model has to prove itself in the market and generate revenue for the group.