VW and Ford Want to Make Commercial Vehicles Together

Ford and VW announced yesterday that they had signed a memorandum of understanding allowing them to talk about making commercial vehicles together.

The pair explicitly denied any chances of ownership stakes trading hands, so the deal will be limited to working together on individual vehicles.

“Both companies have strong and complementary positions in different commercial vehicle segments already,” said Dr. Thomas Sedran, Head of VW Group Strategy. “To adapt to the challenging environment, it is of utmost importance to gain flexibility through alliances.

Volkswagen runs a successful and profitable commercial vehicles subbrand in Europe but has failed to break through in the US market.

The European giant also owns MAN and Scania trucks, which recently created an alliance with Hino Motors, one of Toyota’s affiliates. Together, those brands will be working together on diesel and gas-electric hybrid engines, connectivity, and self-driving technology.

Unfortunately, the nature of the agreement remains to be revealed, with both sides saying little more than that they will be working together.

“We look forward to exploring with the Volkswagen team in the days ahead how we might work together to better serve the evolving needs of commercial vehicle customers – and much more,” said Jim Farley, Ford’s president of Global Markets.

What is clear is that both sides are thinking about this from a global perspective.

“This is a core element of our Volkswagen Group Strategy 2025,” said Sedran. “The potential industrial cooperation with Ford is seen as an opportunity to improve competitiveness of both companies globally.”

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