The last Ford Fiesta with an internal combustion engine rolled off the production line just last month. Ford intends to only produce electric models in the future. For this purpose, production in Cologne was completely rebuilt. The consequences of the unexpected delay for the 4,000 employees who should have built the Explorer are not yet foreseeable.
The chairman of the works council, Benjamin Gruschka, will negotiate with the company management in the coming days and weeks: “We as the works council were confronted with this issue this week,” Gruschka said today.
More time to meet requests
The reason for the delay is a new norm for electric drives – with new standards that specify safety measures and different batteries. More time is needed to meet the requirements of the standard.
It remains unclear how the employees will be employed during this time. Only in spring did the works council and the company come to an agreement that 12,000 jobs at Ford would be permanently secured. Ford had previously cut several thousand jobs.
The European location for e-car production in Cologne will therefore have to wait. On June 12th, the new production facilities for the “Explorer” were opened with prominent guests such as the German Federal Chancellor, Olaf Scholz and the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Ford Motor Company and Henry Ford’s great-grandson, William Clay Ford Jr.