Ford says potential investor in Saarlouis plant pulls out

Talks between Ford and a potential investor in its plant in Saarlouis, Germany, have fallen through, the carmaker said on Thursday, plunging workers back into uncertainty over the future of the site and their jobs.

The investor, who was never named, signed a non-binding agreement in June of this year but has now decided not to continue the negotiations, a spokesperson said in a statement.

The future of the Saarlouis site has been unclear since June 2022 when Ford picked a site in Spain to assemble its next-generation electric vehicle (EV) over the German plant, which will stop producing its current model, the Ford Focus, from 2025.

Fifteen possible investors had expressed interest, the works council said earlier in the year, with some media reporting that Chinese EV maker BYD was among them.

The deal with the potential investor would have secured 2,500 of the currently around 4,500 jobs at the site, according to a Handelsblatt report on Thursday.

Ford will maintain 1,000 jobs in Saarlouis under an “alternative plan” that could also serve as a basis for a future technology centre at the site, Thursday’s statement said, without providing further details.

The news will come as a blow to unions, which had expected a solution by the end of the first quarter of 2023, saying workers would not wait until 2024.

Ford says potential investor in Saarlouis plant pulls out