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VW Will Share MEB Platform with Ford


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More likely that VW will develop and supply BEVs for Ford, like Ford will be develop and supply Amarok to VW.

A while back, VW Nth American boss announced that VW would be producing BEVs in North America and was hinting that VW was waiting for manufacturers to join it.

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1 hour ago, passis said:

So, will Ford build EVs on both MEB and its own electric platform, but without sharing the latter with VW?

Or might VW build Fords? I've read elsewhere that VW are considering building EV's at its Chattanooga plant, so perhaps adding Ford to that mix might make for a stronger business case? For Ford, it would represent added volume without added plant investment.               

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49 minutes ago, Harley Lover said:

Or might VW build Fords? I've read elsewhere that VW are considering building EV's at its Chattanooga plant, so perhaps adding Ford to that mix might make for a stronger business case? For Ford, it would represent added volume without added plant investment.               

That would explain why the UAW desperately wants to unionize that plant, despite 2 very poorly timed votes 

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1 hour ago, fuzzymoomoo said:

That would explain why the UAW desperately wants to unionize that plant, despite 2 very poorly timed votes 

Correct, VW has an EV plant in North America where it will build EVs for itself and now presumably Ford. It’s perfect for Ford as the buy into EV development and production becomes much less, a good move while technology evolves quickly.

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On 7/6/2019 at 4:26 AM, twintornados said:

Its not so much who will build what, but how both companies will share infrastructure in the world of EV charging stations. 

Not at all, this is indeed all about who can build and supply what products to each other, the very last thing you’d want to do is have each Organization building and managing each other’s platforms. It’s far more cost effective to outsource vehicles from another manufacturer already committed to similar products, I suspect that Ranger-Amorok and Transit - Transporter still trumps a shared EV.

Edited by jpd80
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7 hours ago, jpd80 said:

Not at all, this is indeed all about who can build and supply what products to each other, the very last thing you’d want to do is have each Organization building and managing each other’s platforms. It’s far more cost effective to outsource vehicles from another manufacturer already committed to similar products, I suspect that Ranger-Amorok and Transit - Transporter still trumps a shared EV.

Also gives increased platforms to spread costs around allowing them to be more profitable. It allows Ford to have more BEVs in a market that is still in its infancy and won't be affordable for the vast majority of buyers (of that particular type of car) 

Ford can make $$$ on a BEV F-150 far more easier then it could a Fusion or Focus sized product, just due to the pricing of those products. The Model E is going to be over 40-50K and I'm assuming will be profitable. 

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15 hours ago, passis said:

So, will Ford build EVs on both MEB and its own electric platform, but without sharing the latter with VW?

VW will have two EV platforms. MEB is for less expensive, more mainstream vehicles. The other one debuts on the Porsche Taycan and Audi e-tron GT(sedan). Perhaps Ford will use MEB for less expensive EVs and 'E1' for the Mach E, Lincoln CUV, and (presumably) fullsize sedans for both brands.

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My concern with these types of agreements is how long term are they... Think of the MB/Infiniti deal that MB has decided not to renew - Infiniti will have to scramble to develop replacement vehicles - arguably easier to do as they are ICE. If Fords BEV portfolio is all VW, and VW decides they want out, it will be harder to spool up replacements, especially if they don’t continue to build their own BEV knowledge. 

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1 hour ago, sullynd said:

My concern with these types of agreements is how long term are they... Think of the MB/Infiniti deal that MB has decided not to renew - Infiniti will have to scramble to develop replacement vehicles - arguably easier to do as they are ICE. If Fords BEV portfolio is all VW, and VW decides they want out, it will be harder to spool up replacements, especially if they don’t continue to build their own BEV knowledge. 

Depends on how much is really shared between both companies. 

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5 hours ago, sullynd said:

My concern with these types of agreements is how long term are they... Think of the MB/Infiniti deal that MB has decided not to renew - Infiniti will have to scramble to develop replacement vehicles - arguably easier to do as they are ICE. If Fords BEV portfolio is all VW, and VW decides they want out, it will be harder to spool up replacements, especially if they don’t continue to build their own BEV knowledge. 

Go back to the reason why the alliance is there in the first place, each of the players has something the other wants, rather than designing and manufacturing in isolation, both can benefit immensely form out sourcing some vehicles, the money saved from that more than outweighs the negatives. Ford also has its own EV platform (s) but a this early stage it's probably a lot more cost effective to use VW's EV platform for lower cost vehicles.

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And if the EV market and supporting infrastructure never takes off or takes longer than expected to become viable Ford will have less invested if it sources at least some of that product from VW. There is already a more established market for the trucks and vans Ford will be building for VW. 

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7 hours ago, blksn8k2 said:

And if the EV market and supporting infrastructure never takes off or takes longer than expected to become viable Ford will have less invested if it sources at least some of that product from VW. There is already a more established market for the trucks and vans Ford will be building for VW. 

 

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On 7/6/2019 at 10:58 PM, AGR said:

VW will have two EV platforms. MEB is for less expensive, more mainstream vehicles. The other one debuts on the Porsche Taycan and Audi e-tron GT(sedan). Perhaps Ford will use MEB for less expensive EVs and 'E1' for the Mach E, Lincoln CUV, and (presumably) fullsize sedans for both brands.

I believe this is probably correct.

Ford is probably going to use MEB for small cars, especially for European markets. Supposedly MEB can be scaled up to host bigger cars but I think Ford is probably not going to use it for more profitable/larger models. VW is more than happy to let Ford use MEB to increase volume if Ford is only using it for the (for now) unprofitable part of the market.

E1 is probably optimized for CUV and slightly larger cars and I expect Ford to use its own platform for those models. I can't imagine VW will let Ford in on the J1 platform (Taycan/e-tron GT and other future large VW group EVs).

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1 hour ago, bzcat said:

I believe this is probably correct.

Ford is probably going to use MEB for small cars, especially for European markets. Supposedly MEB can be scaled up to host bigger cars but I think Ford is probably not going to use it for more profitable/larger models. VW is more than happy to let Ford use MEB to increase volume if Ford is only using it for the (for now) unprofitable part of the market.

E1 is probably optimized for CUV and slightly larger cars and I expect Ford to use its own platform for those models. I can't imagine VW will let Ford in on the J1 platform (Taycan/e-tron GT and other future large VW group EVs).

Another thing to consider/remember too is Ford's investment in Rivian, which could also underpin larger/luxury Ford/Lincoln models, which would let the Ford/VW thing be limited to smaller MEB-based cars.

 

On a sidenote, does that mean all these Ford-branded, VW-built cars would use VW switchgear?

Edited by rmc523
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2 hours ago, rmc523 said:

On a sidenote, does that mean all these Ford-branded, VW-built cars would use VW switchgear?

Probably. A past example of Ford-branded, VW-built vehicle, MKII Ford Galaxy (related to VW Sharan), used mostly VW switchgear. But there were still some design differences between the Ford version and the VW version. 

Galaxy.

dscf0089.jpg

Sharan.

vw_2428.jpg

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