Moving Forward on Joint Projects with Volkswagen
We have today signed agreements that expand our global alliance with Volkswagen to meet the rapidly evolving needs of our respective current and future customers in Europe.
Together, we expect to more rapidly innovate vehicle offerings, incorporate relevant new technologies, and offer more model choices.
This will include:
- A medium pickup that we engineer and build, for sale by Volkswagen as the Amarok starting in 2022
- A city delivery van based on the latest Caddy model, developed and built by Volkswagen, as early as 2021 – and later a 1-ton cargo van created by Ford
- A highly differentiated Ford electric vehicle for Europe by 2023 built on Volkswagen’s Modular Electric Drive (MEB)
During the lifecycles of the products, we expect to produce up to a combined 8 million of the medium pickup truck and both commercial vans included in the commercial relationships.
Volkswagen Group CEO Dr. Herbert Diess.
“In light of the Covid 19 pandemic and its impacts on the global economy, more than ever it is vital to set up resilient alliances between strong companies. This collaboration will efficiently drive down development costs, allowing broader global distribution of electric and commercial vehicles, and enhance the positions of both companies.”
Ford CEO Jim Hackett.
“This alliance comes at a time of tremendous enthusiasm about the intersection of increasingly intelligent, connected vehicles in an ever-smarter world. This creates a huge opportunity to innovate and solve many of the world’s transportation challenges and deliver extraordinary benefits to customers – even as companies need to be selective about how they use their cash.”
Both companies have strong commercial van and pickup businesses around the world, including popular models such as Ford’s Transit and Ranger and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicle’s Transporter, Crafter, Caddy and Amarok.
Jim Farley, Ford chief operating officer.
“Commercial vehicles are fundamental to Ford today and an area where we will accelerate and grow, and working with Volkswagen on these platforms will provide both of us significant financial advantages in things like engineering, and plants and tooling. Separately, Ford will add battery electric versions of Transit and F-150 in the next 24 months for commercial customers who increasingly need zero emissions and the power of connectivity, data and artificial intelligence.”
Thomas Sedran, chairman of the board of management of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles.
“The collaboration with Ford is a key building block of our GRIP 2025+ strategy and part of the current transformation of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles. This long-term cooperation with Ford will strengthen our very good position in area of light commercial vehicles, especially in our core European markets, and is proof that we are successfully implementing our plan step by step.”
Our use of Volkswagen’s MEB architecture in Europe will represent another cornerstone in Volkswagen’s electric vehicle strategy, and further efforts by both companies to fulfill their commitments to the Paris 2015 Agreement. Both ourselves and Volkswagen plan to explore additional ways to cooperate on electric vehicles.
The new electric vehicle will add another compelling nameplate to our all-electric Mustang Mach-E, which will be introduced in 2021.
Additionally, both companies will work with Argo AI to form distinct, highly capable autonomous-vehicle businesses based on Argo AI’s self-driving technology.
The alliance does not include cross-ownership between the companies, which will remain competitors in the marketplace.
Looking Forward to see the result of this great Synergy.
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