From Sizzling to Fizzling at Ford: How the EV Transition Made Rock-Star Engine Designers Expendable

One summer morning in 2021, Lem Yeung opened an email from Ford's HR department. He stared at his screen. Yeung, a mechanical engineer, had worked on internal-combustion-engine development at Ford for 30 years, the exact tenure that made him eligible for the generous retirement package that Detroit's car companies have long offered. The son of Chinese immigrants, Yeung was also part of Ford power-train lineage—both of his parents also were engineers who developed engines at the iconic company.