Ford Europe has been in the midst of a major shakeup over the past couple of years, which began back in 2022, when The Blue Oval announced that it would no longer operate as its own separate entity after 55 years of doing precisely that. Instead, Ford has ended its regional earnings reporting and is instead reporting financial results from its five total businesses – Ford Blue, Model e, Ford Credit, Ford Pro, and Ford Drive. Now, a recent management shakeup at the automaker has resulted in an even bigger change, it seems.
According to Automotive News, Ford plans to downsize its management team in Europe – from nine directors to four – following the departure of Martin Sander, general manager of Ford Model e Europe, who is heading back to Volkswagen next month. Rather than replace Sander, Ford will eliminate his position and the deputy role, leaving FoMoCo’s U.S.-based management team in charge of its European operations.
Thus far, Ford has only two of those four European director roles sorted – Rene Wolf will remain manufacturing director of the automaker’s European plants, while Christian Weingaertner will continue to oversee marketing and sales in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. A third position will be filled internally, while Ford will look outside the company for the fourth. Additionally, personnel manager Rainer Ludwig will retire, and all remaining, lower-tier executives will now report to Dearborn. All of these changes are set to take place on the first of July.
“This change simplifies our administrative and management structure in Germany, gives us more speed of action and allows the management team to concentrate fully on its operational tasks and lead Ford into a successful future,” Ford Germany Supervisory board chairman Kieran Cahill said in a statement.
In the meantime, Ford’s future in Europe is a bit murky at the moment after the automaker nixed its plans to go all-electric across that region’s lineup by 2030 or sooner. At the same time, Ford has been trimming its European workforce for months now, but it reportedly isn’t done laying off workers there, either.
We’ll have more on the future of Ford Europe as soon as it’s available, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for 24/7 Ford news coverage.
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