► Rethinking the business means a big shake-upCar makers are embracing the idea of a split personality. Ford is partitioning of its car-making business into Ford Blue and Ford Model E. Blue’s responsibility will be to maintain and further develop combustion-engined cars, and must also be the main revenue driver, while Model E is positioned as the EV and software dynamo.
The move is designed to help Ford reach its goal of half its global sales volume being EVs by 2030. Ford president and CEO Jim Farley has called it ‘one of the largest automotive transformations in history.’ Ford predicts the new structure will bring a $3bn saving in organisation costs by 2026.Renault, meanwhile, has announced that it is to make EV and software development the responsibility of a division called Ampere. It aims to employ around 10,000 people in France.
Renault, says our source, ‘is more international than it looks, serving markets like Africa, Asia, Korea and Latin America, meaning we’ll still sell combustion cars for a while.’ Organising in a split way could mean a more complicated business structure, and could mean having an entire division staring down the barrel of obsolescence. So much so that Ford has already announced job cuts as of March 2023, including 1,100 jobs at its Valencia plant as well as 3,800 roles in development and administration in the UK and Germany, as it reshuffles its production requirements ahead of producing more EVs.
If it's splitting in EVs and ICEs I'm cool with that. It makes it easy to know what fords are cool and gas powered