Felix Cerezo
Updated Friday, March 29, 2024-01:59
Ford Industry assigns Valencia to manufacture electric cars from 2025
Controversy Ford Valencia will retire early at the age of 53 in the heat of the fight for pensions
In the story The Emperor's New Clothes, two children end up saying what the rest do not want to see: "but he is naked," they shout at the monarch's invisible suit. Without reaching that extreme,
the Ford plant in Valencia has experienced a similar situation in recent months.
Because it is called to be one of the industrial pillars of Ford's electric future in Europe, but from this month of April and until then - and there are years left - it would depend on one car:
the Kuga SUV, for the five it had in production in 2021 Successful
- it is the best-selling plug-in hybrid SUV in Europe - but only one.
Specifically,
in the spring of 2022, the Mondeo was discontinued
; A year later it was the turn of the
S-Max and Galaxy
minivans and, within three weeks, the final goodbye to the Tourneo/Transit Connect van will take place
.
48% less production
In this way, the decision to assign an additional model will make this transition much more bearable, because
of the 417,000 vehicles manufactured in 2017 in the Valencian facilities, it has increased to 220,000 last year.
70% of them, Kuga units.
But also in the summer of 2022,
Valencia took over the production of a new generation of electric cars for Europe.
It was a life or death fight. Without exaggeration: Saarlouis, the losing German factory, is doomed to closure or sale. Ford said it had 90% of its staff left over.
Almussafes has not been spared from adjustments either. Since 2020 alone, it has suffered three EREs that have cost 2,000 jobs. Part of them, in anticipation of the lower workforce of battery-powered cars, initially planned for 2025 or 2026.
Not at the first PERTE VEC
However, last fall,
Ford froze its electric investments due to low demand for these models.
Among them, those from Valencia, so
those vehicles do not have an arrival date right now.
And if it was speculated that they would be large, on a platform evolved from that of the Mustang Mach-e, now it seems that they will be smaller.
It was not the only bad news linked to the project. A year before and after having obtained 106 million euros in the first call for PERTE VEC, the company renounced them due to not being able to execute the project before July 2025 as stated in the conditions of the plan.
However, they have resubmitted to the second call for this plan,
obtaining 37.6 million for the battery line and are waiting to know if they will also obtain funds from line B, dedicated to the electric car value chain.
While it finishes rethinking that strategy - and Ford is not the only manufacturer in that position -
the new model, of which more details will be known on April 10,
will be crucial for employment. In 2023, the Kuga contributed 149,000 units and this year a lower figure is planned.
Global reach car
Given what the market is asking for, the ideal would be
an SUV with hybridization, which is exactly the scheme offered by the current Kuga and which is the technology
(adding hybrids with and without a plug)
preferred by Europeans,
with 36.3% of sales in the EU this year
.
Something that also fits with the relaxation of the Euro 7 emissions standard, which has given oxygen to cars with combustion engines and will not come into force until 2027. It would also be a new model in Europe. And perhaps global in scope.
This Tuesday, El MUNDO spoke with Ford's leadership at an event related to the new electric Explorer. And, although they did not want to comment on Valencia, Jim Farley, its global CEO, did talk about the product.
«We want to replace boring models with iconic, attractive and emotional ones such as the Bronco, Ranger, Explorer or Mustang.
Names that are part of our best history and must continue in the electric era," according to Jaime Hernández. An era, by the way, in which
the Fiesta will no longer be there,
just the car with which Almussafes started in 1976.