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Ford has announced plans to cut 1,300 jobs in the UK over the next two years, a fifth of its total workforce in the country, BBC News reports.

It is part of a major restructuring programme that will see the carmaker cut 3,800 jobs overall across Europe.

Ford is cutting back on development staff as it faces an uncertain economic future and prepares for the transition to electric vehicles.

Most of the UK cuts will be at its research site at Dunton in Essex.

Several hundred back-office posts are also expected to be closed at sites across the country. But production sites at Halewood, Dagenham and Daventry will not be affected.

The announcement comes less than two years after Ford closed its engine plant in Bridgend.

"Here in Europe we've got a pretty difficult economic situation, and the outlook is uncertain," explained Tim Slatter, chairman of Ford of Britain.

"High inflation, higher interest rates, the ongoing war in Ukraine, cost of energy and so on."

But he insisted that was not the only factor. Ford of Europe is preparing for a major transformation of its business.

By 2030, it expects all the cars it builds in the region to be fully electric.

Two out of three commercial vehicles will be either electric or plug-in hybrids by the same date.

At the same time, it will be attempting to move away from being seen as a mass-market supplier of relatively cheap, everyday transport.

Instead, it wants to develop a slimmer line-up of more exotic vehicles, which exploit evocative brand names - something it has already done with the Mustang Mach-E and the F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck.

It also wants to focus on its portfolio of commercial vehicles, notably the Transit.