From the parent company

Ford Germany receives substantial financial injection

The US headquarters is helping out the ailing car manufacturer Ford Germany (symbolic image).(Bild: Tada Images - stock.adobe.com)

The car manufacturer Ford Germany is receiving a substantial financial injection from its parent company. Up to 4.4 billion euros are to help reduce debts. These recently amounted to 5.8 billion euros.

However, the capital injection means that a so-called letter of comfort from 2006 is no longer valid. "The letter of comfort was something unusual that no other Ford subsidiary had. The discontinuation of the letter of comfort is a step back to normality and by no means an expression of Ford's lack of commitment in Europe - quite the opposite: the several hundred million euros for the new business plan show that the US headquarters continue to believe in success in Germany and Europe," said Ford Germany boss Marcus Wassenberg.

In detail, the parent company is not only providing the financial injection to pay off debt, but also several hundred million euros to boost business over the next four years. In order to be successful in Europe in the long term, the Group must simplify its structures, reduce costs and increase efficiency, said Ford Vice President John Lawler.

4000 jobs to be cut
Last November, Ford announced that around 4,000 jobs would be cut in Europe by the end of 2027, 2,900 of them in Germany and 800 in the UK. The car manufacturer justified this with weak demand, high costs due to the switch to e-mobility, fierce competition and regulations. The management appealed to political leaders to provide greater support for the transformation to e-mobility.

Ford Germany has been in the red for a long time, the cost-cutting program was announced at the end of 2023. Ford Germany currently still has around 16,000 employees, most of them in Cologne.