Firat Elhuseyni, Ford Otosan Craiova: “We need to work together to keep the younger generations inside Romania and rejuvenate the country’s workforce”

“This is an interesting period for us at Ford Otosan Craiova. It’s our first investment outside of Türkiye and we have invested around half a billion euros since last three years. We are trying to deliver what we have promised. The key for us is to make commitments and always deliver. We have been working on this. A couple of weeks ago we have started the battery assembly lines and hopefully soon we will start the production of electric vehicles in Romania by the end of this year.

We have fulfilled our commitments to the authorities, investors and shareholders and the community, but we also share the disappointments and issues the industry is currently facing. We need to see some concrete steps from a legislative perspective, including the European Union. Agility and flexibility will be critical elements in going forward. We are lucky to have our own ICE engines, produced also in Romania, but we need more support from the authorities to move forward with these changes in the automotive industry,” Firat Elhuseyni, President, Ford Otosan Craiova said during Automotive Forum 2024 organized by Automotive Today and The Diplomat-Bucharest.

“Infrastructure, the support schemes and legislation should be reviewed from a holistic perspective to support the whole automotive industry otherwise we will be in big trouble together.

For the next year there are 3 critical topics: people, quality and costs. This is how we approach our business strategy. We have great people in Romania, I am working with a very experienced team.

More than 250,000 people are working in the local automotive market, but nearly 25 percent of this workforce is older than 50 years. We need to work together to find a way to keep the younger generations inside Romania and rejuvenate the country’s workforce.

At Ford Otosan we are working very closely with the local authorities, with local universities for apprenticeships programs and with local schools to train the workforce ourselves.

Since last year, we have hired more than 1,500 people in Craiova and this took us up to more than 6,500 people. To keep it sustainable we are doing our part of the business.

Quality in the automotive industry is more important than ever. Our competitors have high quality globally together with competitive costs. That’s why we must work with our suppliers locally to get the best quality level. In Romania we have more than 60 suppliers, and half of our parts are coming from Romanian suppliers. We are proud to share that, and we want to further increase this collaboration.

Coming to the costs topic, there are some things which are under our control. We need to find opportunities through logistics, smarter design and packaging, and even parts design as well.”