Ford and VW agree to produce EVs and commercial vehicles

Ford and Volkswagen are expanding their global alliance to develop more vans, pick-up trucks, electric vehicles, and autonomous vehicles.

The alliance will produce the Volkswagen Amaroka medium pickup truck, which will be engineered and built by Ford, and ready for sale in 2022 within the Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles lineup.

By 2021, the alliance also hopes to develop a city delivery van based on the latest Caddy model, developed and built by Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, and later a one-ton cargo van created by Ford.

The partnership will also manufacture a Ford electric vehicle by 2023 built on Volkswagen’s Modular Electric Drive.

During the lifecycles of the products, the companies expect to produce up to a combined 8 million of the medium pickup truck and both commercial vans.

“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,” said Volkswagen Group CEO Dr. Herbert Diess.  “This collaboration will efficiently drive down development costs, allowing broader global distribution of electric and commercial vehicles, and enhance the positions of both companies.”

“This alliance comes at a time of tremendous enthusiasm about the intersection of increasingly intelligent, connected vehicles in an ever-smarter world,” said Ford CEO Jim Hackett.  “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.”

Additionally, the companies will both work with Argo AI to form autonomous-vehicle businesses based on Argo AI’s self-driving technology.