ford and Volkswagen extend their multi-billion dollar collaboration electric cars the end. The US carmaker will in future build a second electric car for the European market based on the MEB electric platform developed by Wolfsburg, the two companies said on Monday. Ford has big plans for the new models: within six years – i.e. in the period from 2023 to 2029 – the car manufacturer wants to produce 1.2 million of these electric vehicles in Cologne.
Ford plans to launch a total of three new electric cars and four new electric vans by 2024. The first e-car is to be sold from 2023, the second e-car, also produced in Cologne, is to roll off the assembly line from 2024. From 2026, the Americans want to sell more than 600,000 all-electric vehicles a year in Europe.
Almost three years ago, Ford and Volkswagen agreed on an alliance to mass-produce at least one emission-free vehicle in Europe from 2023. To this end, the US group is currently converting the Ford plant in Cologne into a European center for electric cars at a cost of two billion dollars – and has thus doubled the announced investments within a short time. With the billion-euro investment, the group is making it clear that the Cologne site, with its electrification center and currently around 14,800 employees, will continue to play a central role in the future. The small car Fiesta is built in the plant, but in the long term the production of the combustion engine model will be phased out. When exactly is unclear. Demand for the Fiesta is currently high, stressed Ford Europe boss Stuart Rowley (54) on Monday.
When it comes to e-mobility, Ford is considered a late starter, while competitors invested much earlier and more extensively in Stromer. In the meantime, however, Ford’s electric investments are picking up speed, which investors are rewarding and the value of the carmaker at the beginning of January to more than 100 billion US dollars. The US automaker is now worth around $64.2 billion on the stock exchange.
“We are perfectly timed and are now seeing the market grow,” said Rowley. It is expected that by 2030 more than three quarters of the vehicles sold by Ford will be electric “and by 2035 all of our cars and commercial vehicles will be emission-free,” said the manager.
VW wants to make the sale of licenses a second mainstay
The agreement will help Volkswagen scale its electric platform on which the ID family vehicles are based, production of which is currently being expanded. The group is thus financing part of its high development costs for this technology. As a result, the vehicles can be offered more cheaply. “For the final breakthrough of e-mobility in Europe, what is important now is cost-effectiveness and speed,” said CTO Thomas Schmall. The agreement with Ford will further accelerate the electrification of both companies.
Europe’s largest car manufacturer wants to develop the sale of vehicle licenses based on the MEB platform as a second mainstay. The German group is also working with the Americans on the development of self-driving cars and has invested in the Ford subsidiary Argo.
In order to meet the increasing demand for batteries, Ford is looking to join forces with other companies: a joint venture is to be founded with the South Korean company SK On and the Turkish company Koç Holding to produce battery cells near Ankara from the middle of this decade – planned annual capacity 30 to 45 gigawatt hours, Ford announced on Monday. Ford wants to produce the compact Puma SUV as a purely electric car in Craiova, Romania, from 2024.