US car manufacturer Ford is implementing a reduced work regime in the western German city of Cologne due to weak demand for electric cars.
“Significantly lower than expected demand for electric vehicles, especially in Germany, requires a temporary adjustment to production volumes at the Cologne Electric Vehicle Center,” a Ford spokeswoman said.
The company will apply for short-time work, a government furlough scheme where employees are sent home by a company in financial need but do not lose their jobs, with the government typically paying a percentage of their salaries.
The application for short-time work to the Federal Labor Office was due to rapidly deteriorating market conditions for electric vehicles, the spokeswoman said.
Ford has applied for a total of three weeks of reduced working hours. The electric Explorer and Capri models are produced at the Cologne factory.
“We produce more than we can sell,” local newspaper Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger quoted the company in an internal memo.
Like the entire auto industry, Ford is struggling with weak sales in Germany and Europe. Consumers’ reluctance to switch to electric cars and the end of government incentives in Germany pose a challenge for automakers.
In recent years, Ford has cut thousands of jobs at the Cologne site. In 2018, the automaker had nearly 20,000 employees in the city; This summer, only about 13,000 remained.
