Ford said on Tuesday it will cut up to 1,000 jobs at its electric vehicle plant in Cologne, Germany, as weaker-than-expected demand for battery-powered cars prompts the automaker to scale back production.
“In Europe, demand for electric cars remains well below industry forecasts,” the U.S. carmaker said in a statement. Ford will switch production at the Cologne site to a single shift from January 2026, leading to the job losses.
The Cologne Electric Vehicle Center, which began operations in 2023 after a $2 billion investment, is the company’s key European hub for its new generation of battery-powered models.
The plant currently produces the all-electric Ford Explorer for the European market and was planned as the launch site for additional EVs based on Volkswagen’s MEB platform.
The company said it would offer voluntary redundancy packages to affected staff at the Cologne facility. The move comes as part of a broader restructuring in Germany, which has already impacted thousands of workers, including at Ford’s Saarlouis plant that is slated to close.
