Volkswagen and Ford have reached an outline agreement to share electric vehicle (EV) and autonomous car technologies, according to Reuters, quoting a source familiar with the matter. This EV and self-driving tech alliance extends the carmakers’ alliance beyond working together on commercial vehicles.
As speculated before, the German giant will share its MEB electric vehicle platform with Ford. A second source told the newswire that Volkswagen’s supervisory board is due to discuss deepening the alliance at a meeting on July 11. A VW spokesman declined to comment, but said that talks with Ford are progressing well.
“Our talks with Volkswagen continue. Discussions have been productive across a number of areas. We’ll share updates as details become more firm,” a Ford spokeswoman said.
Wolfsburg and the Detroit carmaker signed a deal in March to develop a pick-up truck, and have been in talks about extending the co-operation to include autonomous driving and mobility services, as well as Ford’s use of the VW Group’s MEB platform.
Carmakers are increasingly looking to partnerships and alliances to help share the cost of moving to new and cleaner tech, potentially saving billions of dollars. A case in point is the recent failed merger negotiations between Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and Renault.
It was also reported that Volkswagen views its relationship with Ford as strategically important to help balance its regional interests. “Today we are de facto a very Chinese-oriented company. For this, we need a counterweight in the US,” VW CEO Herbert Diess was quoted as saying.
Electric vehicles aside, autonomous tech is firmly in the auto industry’s attention. Last month, VW said it had ended its partnership with self-driving car software company Aurora. This came after the latter said it would build autonomous platforms for commercial vehicles with FCA. Ford may have something to offer – its majority-owned subsidiary Argo AI is building an automated “driver” that could compete with Aurora’s tech.
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Smart move by VW & Ford then Merc EQ & BMWi.
Err….your statement is wrong.
Let me correct with you, BMW and Mercedes are smart move. Even Volkswagen and Ford are smart move too. Unlike Japanese and Koreans, they are still stuck right now especially in the future as well.