VW, Ford form alliance to build commercial vans, pickups in 2022

Volkswagen and Ford announced a new alliance yesterday to jointly develop commercial vans and pickups starting in 2022, in a bid to reduce costs in the increasingly competitive auto market. The announcement came after more than six months of talks between the automakers which also included discussions about cooperation on autonomous and electrification technologies for cars of the future.

The American and German giants will join forces to develop commercial vans and medium-sized pickups as early as 2022. But the deal does not involve cross-ownership, according to a joint statement. The companies also will “investigate collaboration on autonomous vehicles, mobility services and electric vehicles and have started to explore those opportunities.” VW CEO Herbert Diess said the alliance “will be a cornerstone for our drive to improve competitiveness.”

Under the alliance, to be governed by a joint committee headed by the chief executives of the two companies, Ford will engineer and build medium-sized commercial pickups for both firms. Ford also will build large commercial vans for European customers and VW will develop a city van. The city van would be designed for the European market, while the medium-sized pickup truck would be specific to South America, Africa and Europe, Ford said.