Ford will reduce its reliance on Volkswagen’s electric vehicle technology, according to foreign media reports.
Martin Sander, head of Ford’s electric vehicle business in Europe, said Ford has not yet made a final decision on future cooperation with Volkswagen on electric vehicles. He also stressed that Ford is open to working with other automakers to produce electric vehicles and that potential future partners include Volkswagen or another company.
Ford and Volkswagen have reportedly been working together in a number of areas, including electric vehicles, self-driving cars and commercial vehicles. Two years ago, the two companies formed an alliance that allowed Ford to use the Volkswagen MEB system to produce electric cars and to assemble Volkswagen’s batteries at Ford’s plant in Cologne, Germany.
Foreign media reports say Ford expects to launch two electric vehicles using Volkswagen’s MEB platform in 2023 and 2024. After the launch of these two all-electric vehicles, the company will use its own design of electric vehicle architecture in future electric vehicles.
This Ford-designed EV architecture will not have any kind of integration (with Volkswagen ), it is very versatile and very powerful, Sander said.
Like most automakers, Ford is trying to move to a broader electrification of its vehicles. To remain competitive and take the lead in the new era of smart, connected electric vehicles, the company plans to invest more than $50 billion from 2022 to 2026 in the research and development of models and power cell technology in the electrification space.
By 2026, Ford plans to sell 600,000 electric vehicles a year in Europe, according to foreign media reports. The company has said that by 2030, its passenger cars in Europe will be fully electric.
