Ford

Ford had 20,000 workers in the Colonia factory. Ten years later they are 7,600 because their electric cars are not bought

by

Three years ago, Ford presented its short and medium -term road map for Europe. Then they announced seven new completely electric modelsof which they were commercial vehicles. Of the other three, only one was a Ford. And, in fact, it has ended up becoming the electric variant of a combustion car. We talk about Ford Pumaan electric car in which they have had to juggle to put an electric motor train. A car limited to the city because platform restrictions Combustion barely leave space for a 43 kWh battery. With its more than 34,000 euros of departure, it has become a difficult car taking into account that it moves on the highway between 200 and the 250 real kilometers of autonomy. The other two, as we said, are not Ford cars. The Ford Explorer and Ford Capri They are electric cars mounted on the Volkswagen platform. In both cases we have stressed that, dynamically, cars have a slightly more interesting tuning than that of the Germans, with more hard suspensions and a slightly more direct direction. However, if you mount one and another it is easy to verify that both models are mounted on the Volkswagen MEB platform. That is disguised with the vertical displaceable screen in depth and a speaker arranged as if it were a sound bar. But that’s it. The interface of a good part of the menus is Purely Volkswagen And, specifically, it is evident that it is a hardware and software mounted on the MEB platform. And that is bad news. For your touch controls or for your usability decisions. And they are also bad news for Ford. So much that it will fire a thousand German employees because their electric cars are not buying. The results of a failed strategy A thousand employees. That is the number that Ford will say goodbye to its neighborhood plant (Germany). They argue that “in Europe, the demand for electric cars is still well below the forecasts of the sector” and that, therefore, the plant will pass to a single shift in 2026, reducing its productive capacity, in words collected by Motorpasion. They explain in the middle that so far this year, Ford has sold 19,000 Ford Explorer units and Capri is still below. In fact, you have to go down to the fourteenth place between best -selling electric cars in Europe in the first half of the year to find the Americans. Cupra, Byd or Peugeot were above them. We could talk about bad results but Ford invested 1,000 million euros in Colonia to modernize the plant and get its electric cars out of there. With a productive capacity of 250,000 vehicles per year, the factory works at half a gas. Nor is it a good time to receive this news since The company is losing money this year and suffering with American tariffs. So much so that last year he earned 1.8 billion dollars and this year plays in red numbers. The result is also the consequence of a risky strategy: to offer two clearly differentiated products. In October 2024, Jim Farley, his CEO, said that the company was “leaving the market of boring cars to enter the market of iconic cars” to the magazine Car. The statements They coincided over time with the abandonment of classic vehicles in the European market such as party, Mondeo or Focus. And it continued: “We are good making a quick car (about Ford and the bronco sub -jack) and authentic SUVs. Look at the Raptor, we brought it from Mexican competitions and turned it into a car that can be used in the street. It is a great example of where I think our passenger cars should go (…) We can face Porsche with the Mustang, it is the best -selling sports coupe in the world. and be stronger and stronger “ In those words, Ford’s strategy was hidden. European emission regulations They aimed at 2025 of Milmillonarias fines. Finally, the sanctions were delayed to 2027 but, if applied, Ford needs to sell many more electric and few cars like the ones Farley mentioned since they exceed the maximum proposed emissions of 93 gr/km of CO2. The answer was the hug to the Volkswagen MEB platform. This has been criticized harshly by critics and the public. In their eagerness to reduce costs, decisions have been made as a profusion of tactile controls They bother in place of adding. And cars have not highlighted precisely for good autonomy or a groundbreaking price. But, in return, Ford has obtained two electric cars in the market with a minimum investment. The risk is almost limited to the modernization of the colony plant. So, There are two clearly differentiated business lines In Ford: Cheap cars (developed on the work of others) and expensive and representative cars that do not even refer to Ford. It is no accident that the Mustang, Bronco or Raptor have lost the Ford logo on their front. They are, in themselves, as families that work almost independently. The problem is that the public has not bought Ford’s bet. The Ford Explorer or Capri are not bad electric cars but you have to assume the youth errors of the MEB platform paid, in addition, at a high price. In what we have been, in Spain, 649 units have been bought between the sum of these two models. 649 units of the almost 21,000 registrations that Ford is registered at the end of August. The damage is especially bleeding in more powerful markets. In Germany, Volkswagen has managed to overcome with the ID.3a car that seemed dead but is the best selling in the electricity market. He is followed ID.7which also uses the MEB platform. The Volkswagen ID.4 and ID.5 They are positioned in the fourth position (add up to the same bag because ID.5 is only the Coupé variant of ID.4). You have to go down to the twelfth position to find the Ford Explorer. Capri is not among … Read more

The domino effect of tariffs is also being felt in Valencia. Specifically, in the Ford factory

by

Ford has drastically trimmed the production forecasts of the new bronco in its Almussafes plant. Of the 300,000 units initially planned, the figure has fallen to 209,000, as published Digital economy citing their own sources. Why is it important. This 30% cut reflects how Trump’s tariff policies are already moving chairs in the European industry before applying. The accuracy of the new figure – 209,000 units compared to the 300,000 round rounds – lets read a very specific calculation between a very specific projected stage between the lines. Between the lines. Suppliers openly speak of the “Trump effect” by explaining these changes. The most important reduction affects precisely the volume allocated to the United States: from 91,000 units per year provided for a much lower but not even pointed out. Ford is adjusting its transatlantic export plans in the face of tariff uncertainty. And that is felt in the Valencian economy, whose GDP depends by approximately 10% of this factory. In detail. The effect on the supply chain is, the redundancy, in chain: Suppliers have to recalculate investments. Prices should be modified based on a lower production volume. Lower production means less industrial capacity required. And that facilitates the transfer of suppliers outside the Almussafes environment. Yes, but. Trump will end his mandate in 2028, but bronco production is planned between 2027 and 2035. That is, three quarters of the manufacturing will be done without him in the presidency. But the car is an industry without much flexibility to modify the decisions that are made now. The threat. Reduce estimates during the award of limited pieces future expansions. If suppliers dimension their capacity for 209,000 vehicles, then increase production will be more complex and expensive. It is not easy to undo steps and make them again. The industry is creating a productive roof based on the most pessimistic stage. Deepen. Ford He is at the same time intensifying his presence in Moroccoparticipating in the Automotive Tangier meetings with the presence of the Moroccan monarch. Its sponsorship contrasts with brands such as Stellantis or Renault, which already manufacture vehicles in the African country, which gives clues of a geographical diversification of the productive strategy. In Xataka | One of the most mythical cars in the history of cinema can be “copied” by anyone. And that has consequences for the industry Outstanding image | Luke Scarpino in Unspash

A retiree and his children have stolen millions of dollars to Ford in office material. Indeed, lights, caps and bumper

by

Although in February this year Audi closed its Brussels plant After 75 years in operation, the road was not simple. In the middle of the workers’ protests, someone had an idea: take the keys of 200 cars, put them in a box and remove them from the factory. Clean, simple and with 200 kidnapped cars whose unit value was around 100,000 euros. As simple as keep a box under the jacket and go through the door. More complicated seems to steal the entire engine of a car. This is what was discovered A few months ago in India. For five years, up to 900 Kia combustion engines were stolen from their plants and has not been clear to what extent some worker of the company itself is involved. However, and although large, one can understand that engines from a factory have been steal if they manage to partially disassemble. But how can one take a car cap? And a bumper? This is what they wonder in Ford where a retiree and two children, company workers, have committed a “billionaire” robbery for more than two years. Hello, dad, I bring you a bumper The information, which comes from Detroit Free Pressa police note echoed in which it was confirmed that four people have been arrested for the theft of pieces of different Ford assembly chains that later sold on Ebay. Among those arrested is a former Ford employee but the identity of any of them has not been revealed so far. The pieces were stolen from three Ford plants, one in Deabane, another on a mounting plant in Michigan and one last in Flat Rock. In Motorpasion and The Drive They point out that three of these four men were family. One of them was a retired father and the other two were his children who had contact with a Ford employee. The extracted pieces were taken to stores where they accumulated for sale. A robbery that, according to the local police, is encrypted in “multimillionaire”. And it is that the four employees would have been subtracting and selling pieces for more than two years. The most curious thing is that it is not small or easy to hide pieces. Among the products found were car headlights but also Bumper and Capóslarge pieces therefore. An agent pointed to Fox That the stores where the pieces were stored were covered to the roof. The investigation is analyzing how these pieces could be taken out of the plant without attracting attention from other employees and will have to discover how they were eliminated from the inventory so as not to attract attention since all the pieces in a mounting plant usually have some type of code that identifies each piece. In addition, from the police they point out that they are still looking for new indications that take them to ships or warehouses where the suspects could save the pieces, taking into account the volume of them and the economic damage that it seems to have caused. Photo | Ford In Xataka | The “Sowing Method” alerted by the Civil Guard: this is the new scam popular in the great parking lots

If the Electric Ford Capri seems strange to you, it is because you do not remember that one day it took a motorcycle engine. Yes, a V4 engine

by

2.- Molancholic sadness originated by the memory of a loss Nostalgia has come to stay in the car market. It makes a lot of sense, if we think coldly. We are facing a historical moment in the automobile industry. The regulatory changes and a new technology that seems to be average price increased of a car to Remove some capabilities He has made many feel expelled from this “new mobility.” Nostalgia applied to the automobile market is nothing more than the redundancy of A constant of our societyencouraged to constantly remind us that all the past was better. And it does not have to be exactly like that but manufacturers have decided to enter the game. If the most common buyer of a new car exceeds 45 years and what lived between 15 and 25 years We consider it as the best time of our life … You just have to subtract. That is why Renault has risen to Renault 5which ceased to be manufactured 40 years ago and was an essential part of the childhood of those buyers who are already well entered in the forties. The same buyers who have the purchasing power to get those cars. He will follow him Renault 4 and the Twingo. It is about attracting the electric car market to an audience that needs stimuli and incentives that appeal to their feelings. Ford opted for a slightly more risky strategy: use mythical names. He did it with the Ford Mustang, who was left an electric brother. And he has done it with the Ford Capri. A car that was an icon of the 70s and a large part of the 80s. Subtracts, again, and checks who is directed An electric car called Ford Capri. Renault has opted for popular models but Ford has chosen the way to resurrect names that have a space of honor in the collective imaginary of car lovers. And, with this, they have gotten the most staunch defenders to be thrown on them but have also managed to get to those who would cost more money with higher investments in marketing. An example of that selective memory and understanding that the past was better for the simple fact that we remember it is the case of Ford Capri. Yes, it has risen as an electric car but in its day it also came to set up an unexpected, weird and that of course we do not associate with the Muscle Cars American. A motorcycle engine in a mythical car That generalized image we have of “American car” of the Ford Capri is not such and partly distorted by memory. The car was born as a European version of Ford Mustang. That forced to make a smaller car, with also smaller engines and, above all, except gastons. That led Ford to opt for a curious solution with the launch at the end of the 60s: mount a V4 engine. Ford’s intention was to make Capri A car that young Europeans could buythat was not expensive and that offered a cheap and sports alternative to the classic German Coupés. The proper functioning of Mustang In the United States they convinced them that they could get a similar result in Europe. With that premise, it was about recycling all possible components to prevent development from being price. With that premise, Ford brought out a V4 engine. A very little used concept in the car market because it forces to develop a propeller with Two ass, two exhaust collectors and two valve trains. That is much more complicated than a four -cylinder engine online. In return, you get a propeller with a very characteristic sound and very contained dimensions. Width it can be a problem if the car is very narrow but it is a much more compact option than its older brothers. In addition, the power delivery was softer than with a four -cylinder online, although it does not reach the refinement of a V6 or a V8. That compact size is perfect for a high performance motorcycle. Its power can go above 100 hp easily and entered in this field, the configuration is ideal for high performance motorcycles. In a car, where the weight is much greater, this advantage is very eclipsed. Ford’s V4 engine we already knew it in Europe. The company put it at the service of Ford Taunus and was Saab’s supplier. Also Lancia with the fulvia He had tried unsuccessfully to make the V4 engine an alternative to the four online cylinders. Despite their best behavior, the high development and production costs finished killing a propeller that we would see again in the Porsche 919 Hybrid of Le Mans. But that is another story. Photo | Ford In Xataka | Ford devised a car moved by nuclear energy in 1962. Other of his crazy ideas are more present than ever

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.