Ford to hire 7,000 thanks to hybrids and electric vehicles

From the Detroit Free Press: Ford Motor will today announce that it is on course to add 7,000 new jobs through the end of next year, according to a person familiar with the planning.

Of those jobs, 1,800 have already been announced for Ford's Louisville plant, where the Ford Escape SUV is built, and another 2,200 blue-collar jobs and 750 salaried jobs will come by year's end.
Another 2,000 jobs will come next year.

The move comes as Ford puts the finishing touches on its 2006 Way Forward turnaround and begins a period of expansion. Ford is expected to post a profit of $8.2 billion for 2010 and sales are stronger than they have been in years. Sales were up 19.5% last year.

The automaker is also planning to embark on an aggressive strategy to expand its fuel-efficient car models, with a new emphasis on plug-in hybrids and all-electric cars.

"We are going to have, clearly, the most comprehensive electrification strategy available," Ford President and CEO Alan Mulally told the Free Press in a recent interview.

Today at the 2011 North American International Auto Show, Ford is to show off plug-in hybrid and gasoline hybrid versions of its C-Max, a minivan coming to the U.S. from Europe in 2012, as well as a battery-powered Focus Electric compact car.

James Tetreault, Ford's vice president of North American manufacturing, said he expects to add a third shift to Ford's Wayne assembly plant where those models are built by 2012, bringing the workforce to 4,400 from 3,200 today.

Customers, Pick Your Fuel

While Ford might be behind some rivals in offering mainstream electric cars -- a market it will enter later this year with the Focus Electric compact -- the Dearborn automaker has taken a deliberately different tack.

Already the No. 1 domestic seller of hybrids, Ford plans to promote the wide variety of fuel-efficient models across its lineup, stressing the words "choice" and "family of electric vehicles."

Ford is planning to launch five hybrid, plug-in or battery-powered cars in North America by 2012, and it already sells several others.

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EV Industry Desperately Searching for Engineers

From Autoevolution: Ever since the recession started pushing large carmakers into bankruptcy, companies tried to reduce costs as much as possible and their cost-cutting plans usually included significant layoffs that sent thousands of people home. Most of them were engineers but now that the industry is showing signs of recovery, the luckiest of them came back to help their companies get back in the game.

But the automotive industry has evolved and more and more auto producers are directing their efforts towards electric vehicles, so engineers must meet new requirements to be eligible for the available positions. But finding skilled EV engineers is impossible, companies claim while pointing to hundreds of unfilled positions.

"We're being a lot more aggressive to recruit these people because it is very competitive," says Jerry Klarr, director of North American hybrid programs for AVL Powertrain Engineering Inc. in suburban Detroit, according to a report by Autonews. "There is definitely a shortage out there of people with the right experience," he added.

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EVs and hybrids: BMW to hire 2,600 new employees

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, the world’s larger maker of luxury vehicles, is increasing hiring as the company expands its lineup to meet environmental regulators’ demand for cleaner-running cars.

The manufacturer plans to add 1,300 employees this year and at least 1,300 in 2011, Michael Rebstock, a spokesman at Munich- based BMW, said today by phone. The maker of BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce models aims to add expertise in electric vehicles, hybrid powertrains and cleaner combustion engines to develop models with lower carbon-dioxide emissions, he said.

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