Ford plans to cut up to 8,000 jobs, according to Bloomberg report

Ford Motor is planning to cut up to 8,000 jobs in the near future in a bid to decrease costs and intensify its focus on electric vehicles, according to Bloomberg News report on Wednesday.

The report cited people familiar with the matter. The cuts are expected in the automaker’s salaried workforce, as well as the Ford Blue unit created in March for running the automaker’s internal combustion engine operations.

The cuts, whose details are yet to be finalized and could change, may be made in phases and are likely to start this summer.

A Ford spokesman refused to comment on this matter saying that the automaker does not comment on speculation. Though Ford has scheduled a Thursday conference call to update investors on its plans to achieve yearly EV production targets of 600,000 vehicles by 2023 and over 2 million by the end of 2026.

“To deliver our Ford+ transformation and lead this exciting and disruptive new era of electric and connected vehicles, we are still focused on reshaping our work and modernizing our organization across all automotive business units and throughout the company,” Ford spokesman T.R. Reid said.

“As part of this, we have laid out clear targets to reduce our cost structure to ensure we are lean and fully competitive with the best in the industry,” Reid added.