The operations management of the multinational ford will visit the Valencian Almussafes plant this Friday, which is waiting to learn about the investments and electrical models that will be commissioned from the factory. The Director of Operations of Ford Motor Company, Kumar Galhotra, and his team will visit the plant on Friday, as a continuation of the one carried out on October 27, which shows the delicate moment it is going through. Ford Europe and doubts about its electric manufacturing plans, according to the UGT union.
That day, the newly appointed global director Kumar Galhotra and the director of the Ford Pro division, Ted Cannis, together with the vice president of Ford of Europe, Kieran Cahill, visited the Valencian factory and met with the works council. During the planned visit, the committee will convey to the managers its opinion on the current situation and will insist on the need to detail the issues included in the agreement for the electrification of the factory.
UGT Ford has indicated, in a statement to the staff, that it hopes to obtain answers “within a reasonable period of time”, so that measures can be negotiated to resolve this “delicate situation for the benefit of all.” He reiterates that it is essential that the company “react in a few months”, otherwise uncertainty will continue for the future, and he advances that the European works council holds meetings in order to establish a joint strategy in the face of the current situation.
In mid-2022, Ford confirmed that it will produce in Spain at the Almussafes factory part of its new electric vehicles, based on the GE2 electric platform, but until now it has not specified the volume of investments that will be allocated to the plant to undertake the change to electric, nor the models that it will assemble.
Minimum production
The last temporary employment regulation file (ERTE) agreed for the factory due to supply problems or lack of components was closed in June, while it will conclude at the end of the year the dismissals under the ERE, which will leave the Almussafes plant at 4,800 workers.
The Transit van will cease at the plant in March 2024 and only the Kuga model will be manufactured until the arrival of the first electric vans, which will be delayed from the planned date of 2026 initially announced to build Ford’s new electric platform for Europe. Ford Almussafes production will be reduced this year by around 10% compared to 2022, with an estimated accumulated manufacturing at the end of December of 218,855 units, which represents nearly 23,300 fewer vehicles, according to union estimates.
Since the return of the summer holidays, production has been paralyzed for several days using collective vacation days to adjust to the lower demand for the models manufactured by Ford’s Valencian plant (Kuga and Transit).
