Volkswagen and Ford have just announced that they will be working together on pickup trucks and commercial vans. They also announced a joint effort with electric vehicles and autonomous technology. The partnership will not involve cross-ownership where both brands will not acquire stakes in each other and instead be focused on taking advantage of shared development and production costs.
Under the partnership, Ford will supply to VW pickup trucks based on their successful Ranger series and large commercial vans based on the Transit Custom. Volkswagen will build a small van like from the Caddy series for both car manufacturers. This means VW will get its own version of a new global Ranger model, as well as large commercial vans while Ford gets small vans and maybe VW’s all new electrification range.
Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess and Ford CEO Jim Hackett said in a joint statement, released early today (Tuesday) that the first jointly developed vehicles could hit the market as early as 2022 and that the partnership would offer efficiencies that would mean stronger profits starting 2023.
