Volkswagen and Ford have announced that the two companies have signed a memorandum of understanding and are exploring a strategic alliance which will enable the companies to improve their competitiveness and also offer better services to customers globally. Although, both companies have made it very clear that there will be no equity arrangements or cross ownership stakes. Volkswagen and Ford have confirmed that one of the projects that they will be working on is commercial vehicles. The companies will jointly develop a new range of commercial vehicles to begin with.
"Ford is committed to improving our fitness as a business and leveraging adaptive business models - which include working with partners to improve our effectiveness and efficiency," said Jim Farley, Ford's president of Global Markets. "This potential alliance with the Volkswagen Group is another example of how we can become more fit as a business, while creating a winning global product portfolio and extending our capabilities.
"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."
Dr. Thomas Sedran, Head of Volkswagen Group Strategy said, "Markets and customer demand are changing at an incredible speed. Both companies have strong and complementary positions in different commercial vehicle segments already. To adapt to the challenging environment, it is of utmost importance to gain flexibility through alliances. This is a core element of our Volkswagen Group Strategy 2025. The potential industrial cooperation with Ford is seen as an opportunity to improve competitiveness of both companies globally."
The companies have said that they will provide updates and additional details in the near future as the discussion between them progresses.
