Volkswagen and Ford sign-off on commercial vehicle strategic alliance

Volkswagen AG and Ford Motor Company today announced a strategic alliance designed to strengthen each company’s competitiveness and better serve customers globally.

The companies are exploring potential projects across a number of areas – including developing a range of commercial vehicles together – to better serve the evolving needs of customers.

Though the partnership is likely to share technology and development costs, it would not involve equity arrangements including cross ownership stakes.

“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.

Dr. Thomas Sedran, head of Volkswagen Group strategy said: “To adapt to the challenging environment, it is of utmost importance to gain flexibility through alliances.”

This isn’t the first time Ford and Volkswagen have worked together, with their previous collaboration in the nineties producing the Ford Galaxy, Volkswagen Sharan and Seat Alhambra, which all used a shared platform.

Globally the partnership makes sense, with Ford a dominant force in the US but less so around Europe, while Volkswagen remains dominant in the European market but less so in America due in part to the ongoing dieselgate scandal.

The news follows an announcement earlier this year where Volkswagen struck a similar commercial vehicle alliance with Hino, Toyota’s truck division.