Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) is reportedly laying off up to 8,000 workers in the coming weeks as it looks to reduce costs and intensify its focus on electric vehicles.
Ford will cut its salaried workforce, as well as workers from its Ford Blue unit, which handles the company's internal combustion engine (ICE) operations, Bloomberg reported.
The cuts, which have reportedly not been finalised and may change, are likely to begin this summer and may be phased in, sources said.
Ford employs around 88,000 in the US, of which about 57,000 are hourly workers, according to the Center for Automotive Research.
In the first quarter of 2022, the carmaker reported a US$3.1bn loss, much of that was due to a sharp decline in the value of its stake in EV startup Rivian Automotive Inc (NASDAQ:RIVN).
Planned EV spending by Ford was lifted to US$50bn from US$30bn in March.
At the time, the Michigan-based company said its EV business would not become profitable until 2025 when next-generation models begin production.
Jim Farley, Ford's chief executive, said this year that cost could be reduced at its ICE operations.
"We have too many people," he said, Reuters reports. "This management team firmly believes that our ICE and BEV portfolios are under-earning," he added, referring to battery electric vehicles, or BEVs.
Ford has scheduled a meeting with investors on Thursday to provide an update on its plans to produce 600,000 EVs annually by 2023, and more than 2mln by 2026.
"To deliver our Ford+ transformation and lead this exciting and disruptive new era of electric and connected vehicles, we remain focused on reshaping our work and modernising our organisation across all automotive business units and across the company," Ford spokesman TR Reid said in a statement.
"As part of this, we have laid out clear targets to lower our cost structure to ensure we are lean and fully competitive with the best in the industry," he added.