Ford Motor Co. Chief Executive Officer Jim Farley says his company has too many people, but he won’t say how many he plans to get rid of.
On a call with analysts to discuss Ford’s strong second-quarter earnings, Farley made it clear Wednesday that job cuts are coming. Bloomberg News reported earlier that the company is planning to slash as many as 8,000 salaried positions.
“We absolutely have too many people in some places, no doubt about it,” Farley said in response to a question from Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas. “We have skills that don’t work any more, and we have jobs that need to change.”
Farley is seeking $3 billion in cost cuts, primarily from the newly named Ford Blue unit responsible for producing traditional internal combustion engine vehicles, such as the Bronco sport-utility vehicle.
Read more: Ford crushes estimates ahead of cuts to fund EV shift
The automaker plans to spend $50 billion in the coming years so Ford can pump out 2 million electric vehicles a year by 2026. Farley has said he intends to fund that EV expansion by transforming Ford Blue into “the profit and cash engine for the entire enterprise.”
“We know our costs are not competitive at Ford,” Farley told the analysts. “We are not satisfied.”
The automaker has already begun cutting costs to try to simplify its business and boost profit, Farley said. And that means it will need fewer people.
“The tension point for us, though, is complexity. Ford is way too complex,” Farley said. “We are planning much less complexity in our Blue business and that is a theme that will run through Blue for years to come.”
The views and opinions expressed in this story are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of NADA.
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