12:56 pm, August 26, 2022
Ford has postponed investment in its Valencia plant that was to play a major part in producing its EVs.
The Blue Oval wouldn’t be drawn further on the move, other than saying it had revised its financial outlook for Europe, according to an Autocar report.
The investment – announced a few months ago – had been planned along with a $2bn (£1.69bn) change to its Cologne factory.
It would have seen more automated assembly lines installed at the Spanish site.
Ford has now warned that some of the circa 6,000 jobs at the Valencia factory site may be axed, although some are expected to receive retraining.
The US giant, which has said it will be an EV-only manufacturer in Europe by 2030, had chosen the Valencia site over one in Saarlouis in Germany, near the French border.
However, it maintained that it was still committed to Valencia, although it means it won’t get €106m (£89.6m) of Covid-related relief funding from Spain’s government.
According to Autocar, Ford is now looking to work with the authorities in Spain to get alternative cash resources for the Valencia factory, which is set to start making new vehicles based on the VW Group’s MEB platform next year.
Earlier this week, Ford also said it’d be axeing 3,000 jobs in the US, Canada and India.
