OREANDA-NEWS  The American concern Ford will begin in 2024 to simplify the design of cars for the sake of economy. This was reported by Reuters with reference to the head of the automaker's product development department Jim Baumbik.

The current product line and machine architecture are too complex and too expensive, Jim Farley, the company's chief executive, said earlier. The profit for 2022 did not satisfy investors (it amounted to $ 10.4 billion instead of the expected 11.5 billion), and now Ford is going to reduce operating costs. The company also intends to expand a number of models with high profitability in 2024, such as the Bronco SUV or the Maverick compact pickup truck.

In January 2023, the auto giant published a plan to cut 3.2 thousand jobs. These are mainly administrative staff in Germany. The cuts will reduce costs by three billion dollars. The saved amount will be used to finance the production of electric cars. A month later, Ford increased the number of employees who are waiting for a reduction to 3.8 thousand.

In March, Ford announced a new wave of layoffs. This time it will affect 1,144 employees (about 20 percent of the staff) of the Almusafes plant in Spain. This is the largest production complex of the company outside the United States. About 1.1 thousand models are assembled at the enterprise, almost half a million cars come off its assembly lines every year. The company explained the decision by the need to change the structure of its activities in Europe in connection with the gradual transition to the production of electric cars.

In January, it became known that Ford was going to sell its plant in Germany to the Chinese BYD. The reason was the same financial problems in the corporation, the increase in the cost of materials for electric car batteries and the expected slowdown in economic growth in the United States and the EU. Production of Ford cars at the Zarlui site is going to stop in 2025.