Ford says making its own parts for electric cars could make up for job losses | Daily News Byte

DETROIT – Ford Motor is trying to build as many of its own parts as possible for its electric vehicles to offset an expected 40% cut in workers needed to build such cars and trucks, CEO Jim Farley said Tuesday .

Farley compared Ford’s latest efforts to source its own parts to the early days of the auto industry, when companies including Ford controlled most, if not all, of the parts that went into a car. .

“We’re going back to where we were at the beginning of the century. Why? Because that’s the value creation. It’s a big change,” Farley told reporters after an auto conference for the Rainbow Push Coalition, a human and civil society. rights organization founded by Rev. Jesse L. Jackson.

In addition to making sense for business, he said preserving jobs and the workforce is another reason Ford wants to build more parts in-house instead of buying them from suppliers. supplier.

He said Ford plans to build such businesses rather than acquire them. For the increasingly popular Mustang Mach-E crossover, the company bought motors and batteries. Going forward, Farley said that won’t happen again.

Ford is building twin lithium-ion battery plants in central Kentucky through a joint venture with South Korea-based SK Innovation, called BlueOvalSK, as well as a massive 3,600-acre campus in western Tennessee. The company announced an $11.4 billion investment last year.

Such joint-venture battery plants have been a point of contention for the United Auto Workers union, as companies such as Ford and General Motors said that the workers of the plants will decide whether to unionize.

Farley repeated those comments Tuesday but also said Ford would be “excited” to have such representation.

The comments come as the United Auto Workers union tries to fix a joint-venture battery plant between GM and LG Energy Solutions in Ohio.

Those joint-venture battery plants have been a point of contention for the United Auto Workers union, as the companies say it’s up to the plants’ workers to decide whether to unionize.

Wall Street has historically viewed union representation as negative for companies, as it traditionally increases labor costs and increases the potential for labor disruptions such as strikes.

The UAW said last month it filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board on behalf of about 900 workers at the GM-LG joint venture, known as Ultium Cells, after the companies refused to recognize the union.