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Volkswagen, Ford set alliance centered on vans, pickups


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As a fan and a stock holder, I will very interesting on how this shakes out...though I'm not 100% where VW is going to get extra production space at Ford plants to build products for the US, unless its just the VW Ranger. 
Flat Rock and Oakville could use more product, but I'm not sure how fitting a third vehicle at Flat Rock is going to help anything? 

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This is so much more than Ford building VW's.

"Volkswagen is reviewing whether to invest in Ford’s autonomous vehicles division while Ford executives are considering licensing Volkswagen’s MEB electric vehicles platform," Reuters reported."

https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/2019/01/09/ford-volkswagen-detroit-auto-show/2527158002/

Edited by mackinaw
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8 minutes ago, mackinaw said:

This is so much more than Ford building VW's.

"Volkswagen is reviewing whether to invest in Ford’s autonomous vehicles division while Ford executives are considering licensing Volkswagen’s MEB electric vehicles platform," Reuters reported."

https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/2019/01/09/ford-volkswagen-detroit-auto-show/2527158002/

There MEB platform will be under a slew of future VW products like the I.D line (sedan, hatch, minivan, crossover).
Maybe this will get them access to VW's PPE platform as well (Porsche Mission E, Audi E-Tron)!

Anyone here purchase stock when it was in the $7's?

Edited by Willwll313wll
Typo
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51 minutes ago, jcartwright99 said:

I'd rather you stay employed than someone in Europe.

I agree, but I don't think it's something either company really needs, especially Ford. It's just an attempt by VW to shelter themselves from market volatility without building a new plant that they clearly need.  

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22 minutes ago, fuzzymoomoo said:

I agree, but I don't think it's something either company really needs, especially Ford. It's just an attempt by VW to shelter themselves from market volatility without building a new plant that they clearly need.  

 

There must be something valuable in it for Ford or they wouldn't be considering it.

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Automotive 2.0 (EV's and autonomous driving) will be expensive.  VW has already said it will spend $50 Billion dollars on BEV's by 2023.  Ford plans on spending $11 Billion by 2022.  Either figure isn't exactly chump-change.  When your'e talking about multi-billions of dollars, of course companies will look for ways to share costs.

 

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I'm guessing this alliance will look similar to Nissan-Renault but without the cross shareholding or Carlos Ghosn's luxury apartments and sketchy tax returns.

So lots of joint development of platforms and powertrain, some sharing of manufacturing, lots of beating up on suppliers, and some rebadges of fringe segments in markets that one or the other is particularly weak.

Edited by bzcat
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From today's Detroit Free Press. Reaction from those who follow the industry:

"This is a very big, bold move," said Charles Ballard, an economics professor at Michigan State University. "The scale of the proposed alliance tells us a lot about the wrenching changes that are being wrought in the industry by trade wars and changes in technology and consumer preferences."

John McElroy, host of "Autoline This Week" and the son of a retired Ford executive, said the alliance could be massive in terms of industry transformation, even if the news leaks just a bit at a time.

"If VW is able to use Ford’s development in autonomy and if Ford is able to use Volkswagen’s development in electrification, it’s not just the cost savings that is important — and that would be big — but it's getting products to the market much, much faster," he said. "Bang! This is cost savings and time savings."

He continued, "Additionally, Volkswagen is looking at having Ford build vehicles for VW in the U.S. market. That would be such a win-win for both companies. Volkswagen has nowhere near the market share that it should have as the largest or second largest car company in the world."

Marick Masters, a business professor at Wayne State University, said a partnership with VW "is a very significant step in the right direction for Ford."

The move would recognize the realities of a changing market in which the cost of competition is high and growing, he said. "This is an opportunity for two companies to combine resources, drive economies of scale and get ahead of the curve on electric cars ... That'll be good for their positions in terms of growth in areas of research and new product development. Why reinvent the wheel if it's already there?" 

 

 

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14 minutes ago, fuzzymoomoo said:

Well if you ask Bob Shanks nothing is off the table, including full blown merger 

I could see that depending on how the industry goes. I feel like this a sort of hedging the bet so to speak if there is mass consolidation or massive slowdown they have a partnership lined up that would face little antitrust worldwide. 

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2 hours ago, fuzzymoomoo said:

Not if they don't start preaching quality again. People won't buy substandard stuff at the prices Ford wants to charge....

I dunno, it seems like people have short attention spans-and the QC I've gotten from my Ford products over the past 15 years or has been pretty good or not enough to change brands (though the 2002 SVT Focus was that car that would)

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One thing alot of people forget about is VW got fleeced pretty good with Dieselgate by the US and other countries-so its not like they where in the best of shape $$$ money wise-so it makes sense for them to work with Ford, who has alot of strengths they don't have and they have things they can work on together. 

Ford has a solid footing to work off of, but with the prior management screwing up future product releases and the changes in the marketplace (that basically no one actually knows how its going to play out), Ford gets their stock price hammered into the ground, even though they are making $$$

 

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