Volkswagen AG, Ford Motor Co. launch global alliance
Volkswagen AG and Ford Motor Company today announced the first formal agreements in a broad alliance that positions the companies to boost competitiveness and better serve customers in an era of rapid change in the industry.
Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess and Ford CEO Jim Hackett
confirmed that the companies intend to develop commercial vans and medium-sized
pickups for global markets beginning as early as 2022. The alliance will drive
significant scale and efficiencies and enable both companies to share
investments in vehicle architectures that deliver distinct capabilities and
technologies.
The companies estimate the commercial van and pickup
cooperation will yield improved annual pre-tax operating results, starting in
2023.
In addition, Volkswagen and Ford have signed a
memorandum of understanding to investigate collaboration on autonomous vehicles,
mobility services and electric vehicles and have started to explore
opportunities. Both companies also said they were open to considering
additional vehicle programs in the future. The teams will continue working
through details in the coming months.
The alliance, which does not entail cross-ownership
between the two companies, will be governed by a joint committee. This
committee will be led by Hackett and Diess and will include senior executives
from both companies.
Ford and Volkswagen both have strong commercial van
and pickup businesses around the globe, with popular nameplates such as the
Ford Transit family and Ranger as well as the Volkswagen Transporter, Caddy and
Amarok.
Through the alliance, Ford will engineer and build
medium-sized pickups for both companies which are expected to go to market as
early as 2022. For both parties, Ford intends to engineer and build larger
commercial vans for European customers, and Volkswagen intends to develop and
build a city van.
