Unlike other alliances between manufacturers, this one does not involve cross-ownership between Volkswagen and Ford. Only brains, development and products will be shared.
We’d heard rumours of this alliance happening and now it’s official: Ford and Volkswagen will join forces in order to face the challenges of the future of mobility, and more.
The deal itself is not 100% set as there are still details to be worked out. Volkswagen and Ford have committed to exploring potential collaboration on EVs, autonomous vehicles and mobility services.
What is settled is the agreement to develop commercial vans and medium-sized pickups for global markets beginning as early as 2022. These segments are expected to grow significantly over the next few years. As such, the alliance will create huge economies of scale and enable both companies to share in investments with common vehicle architectures. From there, the individual carmakers will be able tune them to cater to their specific customers.
A joint committee will be set up and it will be led by Volkswagen CEO Dr. Herbert Diess and Ford CEO Jim Hackett and it will include senior executives from both companies.
The potential in this alliance is limited only by the willingness of those in power as both companies also said they are open to considering future additional vehicle programs.
