Declining sales of the Ford Bronco have convinced the 120-year-old automaker to pump the brakes for 2025, with plans to relocate 400 workers who assemble the vehicle.
Customers initially waited years for delivery of their Bronco when the SUV debuted in 2021, but sales dropped by nearly 20% in September compared to the year before, Ford Authority reports.
With inventory building up at dealers, and preparations underway to retool Ford’s Michigan Assembly Plant in Warren for the 2025 model year in January, the U.S.’ second largest automaker issued a memo on Monday announcing plans to relocate 400 workers early next year.
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The move, according to Ford, would “reduce our line rate to better serve customer demand for Bronco,” but would not result in layoffs, Crain’s Detroit Business reports.
Instead, the roughly 400 workers will head to Ford’s Dearborn Engine Plant or Monroe Parts Depot during the first quarter of 2025, though other companies that rely on the Bronco are issuing layoffs.
“Earlier in November, Webasto Roof Systems, which counts the Bronco among its largest programs, notified the state it plans to lay off 218 employees as a result of reduced production by a customer,” according to Crain’s. “It did not name Ford as the customer and a spokesperson at the time said there had been no change to Bronco production.”
Ford spokesman Lars Weborg told the Detroit Free Press that while sales of the Bronco slumped this year, down 10% through October, they’ve began to rebound in recent months.
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“We are encouraged by the momentum heading into the end of the year, which, along with the production adjustment, should further balance inventory of model year ’24 vehicles as we head into the launch of model year ’25,” Weborg wrote in an email.
The shift is one of many at Ford and other Big Three automakers in recent months, with most of the changes, layoffs, and shutdowns tied to lagging demand for electric vehicles.
Ford announced Wednesday it plans to cut it’s European workforce by 14% because of slowing EV demand from countries like Germany, where government subsidies for EVs ended last year, according to the Free Press.
In Michigan, Ford in October idled its Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn through Jan. 6, putting about 800 out of work amid what CEO Jim Farley described as a “slow uptake of EVs.”
The layoffs in Dearborn came after Ford in August scrapped plans for an EV manufacturing hub in Oakville, Ontario, to focus instead on gas-powered Super Duty trucks.
It’s a similar situation with GM and Stellantis.
Stellantis offered buyouts to salaried workers over the summer, before laying off 1,100 in Warren in October due to declining sales, and another 400 in Detroit this month.
In total, more than 3,750 full-time Stellantis employees are out of a job, or will be soon, according to The Detroit News.
GM announced on Friday the nation’s largest automaker is laying off 1,000 worldwide, including 507 salary and hourly employees at its Global Tech Center. That brings the total layoffs at GM to at least 2,000 since August, when 600 were let go from the tech center.
It all amounts to “an unmistakable sign the auto industry is slowing,” Patrick Anderson, CEO of Anderson Economic Group, told Bridge Michigan. “And that consumers are expressing some reluctance about buying the higher-priced cars, notably electric cars.
“Manufacturers are cutting back on their costs in anticipation of a further slowdown, or even a recession,” he said.
That reality doesn’t appear to be a concern for Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who has remained largely silent as thousands of Michiganders file into the unemployment line.
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Despite an unemployment rate that has increased for seven straight months, Whitmer has focused instead on her top priorities: abortion and birth control, promoting her new book, and pursuing social media stardom.
Whitmer has staked Michigan’s future on EVs, with secretly negotiated deals that steer billions in taxpayer subsidies to the industry, including $715 million to Gotion, a company with direct links to the Chinese Communist Party.
A Bridge Michigan analysis over the summer showed that with $1 billion in EV subsides already spent, her efforts have produced just 200 of 12,000 promised jobs.