Volkswagen and Ford are in preliminary talks over an alliance to develop and produce products, most likely starting with commercial transporter vans. An announcement from Ford came after Volkswagen’s supervisory board gave its managers a green light to strike a deal with U.S.-based Ford.
The goal is a partnership to share development and production costs. Preliminary talks have already started. Ford’s announcement said that the potential projects could span a number of areas, including commercial vans. Ford said that they look forward to exploring with the Volkswagen team in the future how they might work together to better serve the evolving needs of commercial vehicle customers and much more.
Dr. Thomas Sedran, head of strategy for Volkswagen Group, said that markets and customer demand are changing very fast and both companies have strong and complementary positions in different commercial vehicle segments. So, to adapt to the challenging environment, it is very important to gain flexibility through alliances.