Ford’s European boss expects the automaker to make a $1 billion profit in Europe in 2016, well up on the $259 million it returned last year.
Speaking with Automotive News, Jim Farley said that coming in to 2016, the brand targeted $600 million in European profits. However, that goal was surpassed in the first six months of the year and, by the end of the third quarter, Ford had earned $1.039 billion of pre-tax profit.
Key ingredients for this huge increase in its profits are cutting thousands of jobs, closing three plants and updating a plethora of its models in European markets.
Although Ford is on target for record profit figures in Europe, it notes that, if it hadn’t been for the UK’s decision to leave the European Union, its profits would have been even higher. As a matter of fact, Brexit is said to have cost $60 million in the second quarter and could cost $140 million in the second half of 2016 because of falling demand for its models in the UK. By the end of 2018, Ford says Brexit could cost it as much as $1.2 billion.
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