Ford and the Volkswagen Group are looking to commence a strategic alliance that could result in the joint development of new vehicles.
The American and German car makers announced today that they are “investigating” several joint projects, including those for future commercial vehicles that Ford said would “better serve the evolving needs of customers globally”.
The so-called strategic alliance would be restricted to research and development, with no “shared equity” or “cross ownership stakes” like those seen within closer alliances, such as the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance.
“Ford is committed to improving our fitness as a business and leveraging adaptive business models – which include working with partners to improve our effectiveness and efficiency,” said Jim Farley, Ford’s president of global markets.
“This potential alliance with the Volkswagen Group is another example of how we can become more fit as a business, while creating a winning global product portfolio and extending our capabilities.”
Thomas Sedran, the VW Group’s strategy boss, added: “Markets and customer demand are changing at an incredible speed. To adapt to the challenging environment, it is of utmost importance to gain flexibility through alliances. This is a core element of our Volkswagen Group Strategy 2025.”
While only the potential for commercial vehicle projects has been highlighted at this stage, further anticipated benefits for a Ford and VW Group strategic alliance could include better access to their key markets. The VW Group’s brands are key players in Europe and Asia, while Ford remains one of the US’s top car companies.
Both brands are also running their own projects for the development of future technologies. The VW Group is heavily invested in next-generation electric powertrain technology, while Ford has pledged to launch its first mass-market autonomous car by 2021.
“The potential industrial cooperation with Ford is seen as an opportunity to improve competitiveness of both companies globally,” said Sedran.
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One continuous contraction...
Easy to envisage Ford in the US looking at Europe and criticising their financials - all the works done on cars in Europe is broadly unsuccessful, only vans make profits. VW bit stuck on the larger profitable vans - an opportunity to start the offload. There's lots of "previous" - IVECO, New Holland, Geeley, TATA, ProDrive, Freightliner
All about Electric
Translation: "We at ford havent got any electric technology because we didn't see the transition coming, VW were forced to due to dieselgate and we need to take advantage of that shift. Please help us VW."
zag2me wrote:
There was the electric version of the Mk3 Focus and the Mondeo has had a hybrid version for sometime. I'd accept that Ford seem to be behind the wider market in electrification, but to say they haven't any electric technology is not quite true.
I'm not surprised Ford have been looking for another car maker to work with. Most other manufacturers are now in some form of alliance; Ford are one of the last big players standing relatively alone.
Ford and VW, sitting in a tree
Its interesting that these two keep on getting hitched and the bailing out of it. It happened in Brasil in the 80s, then here in Europe in the 90s ( 1st gen Sharan/Galaxy )
Also curious to see what comes out of this cooperation. The Transporter will be based on the MQB plattform, i can't see VW sharing that, and the Crafter is brand new. So maybe a Caddy/small Transits ( whatever their names are ) co-op?