The reveal of the new Volkswagen ID 2 all concept – a compact and affordable electric hatchback touring Volkswagen Golf levels of practicality – has raised the intriguing prospect of VW providing its underpinnings to Ford for an electric Fiesta successor, but such a car will not immediately become a reality.
The ID 2all, which will become the ID 2 when it reaches production, rides on a compact new variation of VW’s ubiquitous MEB architecture, called MEB Entry.
Ford recently revealed its new Explorer, the first of two electric SUVs to use the full-sized version of the MEB platform. The company’s Europe boss, Martin Sander, told Autocar that, without Volkswagen’s platform, “we wouldn’t have an electric volume[-selling] vehicle in the market in Europe right now”.
The Explorer will be followed soon after its launch by a similarly sized ‘sports crossover’ with broadly similar technical specifications, and there has been much discussion across the industry about whether Ford could use the MEB architecture for further vehicles – particularly given the freshly revealed ID 2 is a similar size and (targeted) price to the soon-to-be-retired Fiesta.
Sander told Autocar that Ford has still not determined whether it will continue to use MEB but gave this clarification: “Not decided does not mean we have decided not to do it.”
Ford is currently developing its own global EV architecture for use on future products and evaluating building vehicles on this platform in Valencia. It is also readying an electric version of the Ford Puma atop adapted ICE architecture. However, the potential for additional MEB-based Ford EVs remains on the table.
VW boss Thomas Schäfer was also non-committal when asked if his company could consider partnering with other manufacturers to develop its smaller MEB Entry architecture. “It could be an option,” he said. “But for now, we think that with the scale that we have, we can do it ourselves. We’re looking at a couple of options at the moment.”