BERLIN (Reuters) -Ford plans to chop 3,800 product improvement and administration jobs in Europe within the subsequent three years, the corporate mentioned on Tuesday, citing rising prices and the necessity for a leaner construction because it pivots manufacturing to electrical autos.

Round 2,300 jobs will go on the carmaker’s Cologne and Aachen websites in Germany, 1,300 within the UK and 200 in the remainder of Europe, the corporate mentioned, including that it intends to attain the reductions via voluntary separation programmes.

The information comes as a blow to unions who mentioned in late January that the worst-case situation on the desk was 2,500 job cuts in Europe.

The American carmaker will retain round 3,400 engineers within the area who will construct on core expertise supplied by their U.S. counterparts and adapt it to European clients, European passenger electrical car (EV) chief and head of Ford Germany Martin Sander mentioned on a press name.

“There’s considerably much less work to be finished on drivetrains transferring out of combustion engines. We’re transferring right into a world with much less international platforms the place much less engineering work is important. This is the reason we have now to make the changes,” Sander mentioned.

Nothing has modified within the carmaker’s electrification technique, Sander mentioned, with the aim of providing an all-electric fleet in Europe by 2035 nonetheless in place.

Ford is because of launch its first electrical car in Europe constructed on Volkswagen (ETR:)’s MEB platform in Cologne later this yr and is contemplating bringing a Ford platform to Europe, presumably to its plant in Valencia, Sander mentioned.

“We’re making ready our organisation to compete and win in a area going through unprecedented financial and geopolitical headwinds,” he mentioned.