Ford’s Halewood plant begins making EV energy items for 70% of electrical automobiles offered in Europe – securing 700 UK jobs

Ford’s Halewood factory will start production of electric power units for two of its best-selling battery vehicles, injecting major investment into the local economy and offering job security to hundreds of employees, it has confirmed.

The new Ford eDrive units will power 70 per cent of its electric vehicles sold in Europe, including the new Puma Gen-E electric car unveiled today.

As a result of a fresh £380million investment at the Merseyside factory, 700 jobs are safe and a whole generation of EVs will be powered by UK-produced technology.

Kieran Cahill, Ford’s European industrial operations vice-president, said: ‘Halewood leading the way as our first in-house EV component manufacturing site in Europe, we’re building a thriving future together, with nine electric vehicles on the road in Europe by 2025.’

This comes as a welcome contrast to recent announcements made by Nissan and Vauxhall.

Nissan is embarking on a huge cost-cutting programme after being left with ‘just 12 months to survive’ while Vauxhall has announced the closure of its Luton van plant come April after its parent company Stellantis lost £2.44billion in value. However, Ford has also recently warned of job cuts…

Ford’s £380million investment – including £30.9million of governmental support via the Automotive Transformation Fund – has seen Halewood transformed from a traditional transmissions facility into a state-of-the-art electric vehicle component manufacturing plant.

The Merseyside town will also benefit from a big investment from JLR to turn its plant in Halewood into an EV-only making facility.  

Ford Halewood, which celebrates its 60th anniversary this year, now has the capacity to produce 420,000 eDrive units annually, due to the factory being fitted out with new assembly lines which are exclusively focused on the construction, assembly and testing of the eDrives.

‘The start of eDrive production at Halewood is a proud moment for us,’ said Lee Meyers, Halewood plant manager. 

‘We’re not only embracing an exciting technological transformation but also contributing to the UK’s electric future while investing in our team and community. This plant, our people, and the region have a bright future as part of Ford’s electrification journey.’

Halewood is now Ford’s first in-house electric vehicle component manufacturing plant in Europe, with units set to be distributed across Europe and assembled at Ford Otosan plants in Romania and Turkey.

As well as the new Puma Gen-E – which is the electric version of the UK’s best-selling car and comes with a £29,995 price tag – Halewood-produced eDrives will also power the E-Transit Custom and the E-Tourneo Custom vans.

Ford’s investment has also meant ’employees are upskilled to support Ford’s electric future’: Apprentices and engineers are trained in advanced electric vehicle technologies through ‘£24million investment in Dunton, Essex’ and then after participating in prototype development, they receive training on eDrive assembly.

Ford has also confirmed that Halewood and Dagenham will ‘continue to support Ford UK’s annual export value’ as the American brand ‘manages the electric transition across our car and van line-up.’

Bleak reports of job losses at Nissan and Vauxhall… and Ford could cut UK roles too

While Ford’s investment is a major boon for automotive and electric car production, elsewhere investment in UK car production looks far less certain.

Car manufacturing giant Nissan is ‘on the brink of collapse’ after suffering heavy losses, after worldwide sales slumped by 3.8 per cent to 1.59million vehicles in the first half of the current financial year.

Reducing global production capacity by 20 per cent, a Japanese ‘senior official’ told the Financial Times: ‘We have 12 or 14 months to survive. This is going to be tough. And in the end, we need Japan and the US to be generating cash.’ 

Makoto Uchida, Nissan chief executive, said: ‘This has been a lesson learned and we have not been able to keep up with the times.

‘We weren’t able to foresee that hybrid electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids would be so popular.’

Nissan employs 7,000 people in the UK, of which around 6,000 work at Sunderland – the country’s largest car-making plant in Sunderland. 

While Sunderland looks unlikely to be affect, Nissan has said it will cut 9,000 jobs world wide as part of a huge cost-cutting programme.

Stellantis, which owns Peugeot, Jeep, Fiat, Vauxhall and Alfa Romeo among others, is also having a rough time. 

With £2.44billion wiped of its value, its chief executive Carlos Tavares – previously one of the most highly regarded figures in automotive – resigned with immediate effect on Sunday following Stellantis’ dire September profit warning.

Stellantis is one of the biggest automotive players pushing the Government to relax ZEV mandate thresholds and to reintroduce EV incentives to private buyers to help increase electric car sales. 

It was part of a group of industry representatives that met with the Government mid November to discuss a review into the ZEV mandate.

It has since announced its 120-year old Vauxhall plant in Luton will close in April putting more than 1,100 jobs at risk. 

However Stellantis has said it hopes to transfer ‘hundreds’ of those jobs to Vauxhall’s Ellesmere Port site in Cheshire.

Ford too could see some job losses in Britain, having announced a wider cull of 4,000 European roles over the next three year.

It said this will primarily affect Germany, where 2,900 jobs are under threat, with ‘minimal reductions’ in other European markets.

Those working in administrative and support functions and product development are most likely at risk, with some manufacturing jobs hit too.

Ford currently has 5,300 employees in the UK, meaning 15 per cent of its workforce could be removed in the restructuring plan.

But it was clear that its UK power unit plants at Dagenham and Halewood would not be affected, or logistics base in Southampton.

However, six other sites across the UK – including a major research and development centre at Dunton in Essex and a giant parts distribution centre in Daventry – could be impacted.

Lisa Brankin, managing director of Ford of Britain and Ireland, said in a statement: ‘Making this announcement isn’t something that anybody wants to do, and I appreciate it will have a very significant impact on our employees.

‘It’s not the news anyone wants to hear at any time. So our aim is to try to deliver this through voluntary redundancy.’