VW Confirms Partnership With Ford, Will Jointly Develop Commercial Vehicles

VW and Ford will jointly develop and manufacture a range of light commercial vehicles, the German automaker announced at their annual board meeting.

The two car companies have also identified “additional fields of cooperation outside the light commercial vehicle segment”, where there’s the potential for expanding collaboration but VW didn’t provide any more details.

According to VW, the two companies will remain competitors in the market as their collaboration will not expand in other areas, including commercial, marketing and pricing strategies, putting an end on reports about a possible VW-Ford merger.

“The two companies complement each other very well in terms of both products and regions. The joint development and manufacture of a range of light commercial vehicles is at the core of the envisaged cooperation,” said VW in its statement.

Volkswagen also decided to increase its investment into electric cars and autonomous technologies from $39 million to $50 million over the coming five years to the end of 2023. According to the latest reports, VW is planning on introducing an entry-level electric crossover with a price tag of $23,000 (20,000 euros) in 2022.

“One aim of the Volkswagen Group’s strategy is to speed up the pace of innovation. We are focusing our investments on the future fields of mobility and systematically implementing our strategy”, Herbert Diess, CEO of Volkswagen said after the supervisory board meeting.