Ford to cut thousands of jobs amid transition to electric vehicles

Further job losses at US car maker could still come

Ford is eliminating about 3,000 jobs, mostly in North America and India, as the car maker accelerates it transition to electric vehicles. AFP

Ford Motors confirmed on Monday that it is eliminating about 3,000 jobs, as the US car maker moves ahead with its transition to electric vehicles.

About 2,000 full-time salaried employees will be let go, in addition to 1,000 contract workers, leaders of the Dearborn, Michigan-based company said in an internal email. The cuts will mainly focus on white-collar employees in North America and India.

Ford's 56,000 union workers will not be affected by the layoffs.

The cuts come as governments around the world try to ease the impact of climate change by cutting down on petrol-powered cars.

Ford has said it would spend as much as $20 billion over the next five to 10 years to challenge Tesla's dominance in the market, with plans for electric vehicles to make up half of the company's global production by 2030.

Executive chairman Bill Ford and chief executive Jim Farley said in an email that the company has an opportunity to be at the forefront of the electric vehicle industry.

“Building on this future requires changing and reshaping virtually all aspects of the way we have operated for more than a century,” the email said.

“It means redeploying resources and addressing our cost structure, which is uncompetitive versus traditional and new companies.

“We are eliminating work as well as reorganising and simplifying functions throughout the business.”

The company will provide severance benefits and assistance to help the affected workers find new jobs, the email said.

Mr Farley has previously said that Ford's global workforce of 182,000 is too large and that the company must streamline processes so it can accelerate its electric transition.

More job losses are still possible, Ford spokesman TR Reid said.

“With the fast pace of this industry, we’re going to manage the business smartly for these rapidly evolving priorities,” he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report