Production line for e-cars at Volkswagen
The world’s largest carmaker from Lower Saxony and the number two in the US had announced their global alliance in January at the Detroit auto show.
(Photo: Bloomberg)
DüsseldorfThe planned big alliance of Volkswagen and ford has taken the last hurdle. As was confirmed on Thursday evening in group circles, the VWSupervisory Board approved the additional cooperation projects with the US carmaker. Volkswagen and ford want in the future too in autonomous driving and in electromobility work together. This will be the existing cooperation in light commercial vehicles once again significantly expanded,
The two CEOs Herbert dies and Jim Hackett want to present the details on Friday afternoon German time at a press conference in New York. At Ford, internal approval of the Alliance had been made earlier.
Volkswagen offers Ford access for a license fee to his Modular Electrical Construction Kit (MEB) on. Behind the bulky term hides the platform on the basis of which in future most of the electric cars of the VW Group are to be manufactured – and in the future also in Ford.
The Wolfsburg are leading the MEB among the major manufacturers, but that had its price. The development costs were in the billions. Part of it is to be brought back in via Ford, it says in Wolfsburg. US analysts speculate that Ford could pay several hundred million euros for it.
With the MEB modular kit from Volkswagen Ford wants in Europe set up a separate model program for purely battery-powered vehicles. So far, the US group lacking in the European market such cars. Ford suffered massive losses in recent years in Europe, in 2018 it was nearly 400 million US dollars. As part of a comprehensive savings program, 12,000 employees are scheduled to leave by the end of next year, and six plants will be closed in Europe.
Without electric cars, the US company could not reduce the average consumption of vehicles sold in European countries as much as the EU demands. Ford would have to pay heavy fines from 2021 – extremely high amounts that could jeopardize Ford’s existence in Europe.
In return, Volkswagen gets access to Argo, the Ford subsidiary for autonomous driving. In this field, the Americans are significantly further than the German competitors. Analysts see a lead at Ford of about two years.
The two car companies now want to found a joint venture, where all activities in the field of autonomous driving on both sides are introduced. At Volkswagen, this includes, for example, the Munich subsidiary AID, which transacts over Audi connected to the VW Group.
Development devours billions
Diess and Hackett also expect greater savings from this cooperation. Although the number one (VW) and number four (Ford) are already heavyweights in the industry. However, the expenditures for the autonomous systems are immense, because extensive tests and development work are necessary. By the middle of the next decade, at the earliest, there will be operational autonomous systems that devour billions.
The cooperation with the US start-up Aurora VW boss Diess had ended a few weeks ago. This cleared the way to focus exclusively on cooperation with Ford.
This Friday, the two chief executives should also announce further details about the cooperation with light commercial vehicles, which was already started in January. Ford and Volkswagen initially want to produce pick-ups together. As reported by group of companies, Ford will in the future produce for Volkswagen pick-ups. These vehicles are supposed to be in Ford plants in South America and South Africa from the tapes.
Volkswagen stops production of its own pick-up Amarok at its own commercial vehicle plant in Hanover earlier than planned. VW has never really been happy with this car and has therefore not posted any profits.
The companies had confirmed the talks about an extension of the alliance in advance. It was on the right track, had VW boss Diess recently told top managers. A Ford spokeswoman said, “The talks with Volkswagen have been productive in a number of areas.” However, the corporations did not want to comment on further details at this time.