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Volkswagen board formally okays Ford alliance projects


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https://www.autoblog.com/2020/05/28/vw-ford-alliance-board-approval/

 

I know the info of what was approved has been known, but the VW board approved them, so figured I'd post it.

 



Volkswagen said on Thursday its supervisory board had approved several projects in a multibillion-dollar alliance with Ford that was first announced last July.

The German carmaker said various contracts between the two companies were nearing completion and would be signed soon.
 

Among the shared projects specified by VW are a midsize pickup to be developed by Ford; a city delivery van to be developed by VW; a larger commercial van to be developed by Ford, and a new electric vehicle for Ford of Europe, to be built on VW's electric vehicle architecture.

Regarding official approval of the agreements, a Ford spokesman on Thursday said, "We look forward to jointly providing an update soon."

VW's statement said "further projects are to follow, as is the investment in Argo AI," the self-driving software company backed by Ford and which eventually will be jointly controlled with VW.

VW's planned $3.1 billion investment in Argo "remains on track and is expected to close soon," Argo said in a statement on Thursday.

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Probably replacement for Transit Courier. VW is currently missing a B-segment van so it may have been working on it and Ford decided it didn't want to spend money on another Transit Courier.

 

Or maybe Ford is going to rebadge VW Caddy to replace Transit Connect in Europe since the new Connect is supposedly more optimized for North America. Letting VW build replacement for Transit Connect in Europe frees up Valencia to build more CUVs. 

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4 hours ago, rmc523 said:

Ford's press releases have said VW will build a "city van" which lines up with the Courier, IMO.

My take is that it's the VW Caddy reskinned as Transit Connect in Europe and ROW,

it's basically the reciprocal of Ford Transit replacing VW Transporter.

Edited by jpd80
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4 hours ago, jpd80 said:

My take is that it's the VW Caddy reskinned as Transit Connect in Europe and ROW

it's basically the reciprocal of Ford Transit replacing VW Transporter.

Transit is Crafter sized.

Custom is Transporter sized. 

 

I also doubt VW will use Ford for the next Transporter. It sells very well. The Crafter does not, however.

 

Remember the last Crafter was a JV with the MB Sprinter, but never sold well. The latest Crafter was developed solely, but is also rebadged as a MAN. It sells better, but not in high numbers.

 

My guess they will replace the Crafter with a rebadge of the next gen full size Transit. 

 

If Ford is replacing the Transit Courier with a VW-based model, it begs the question of what will happen to its plant? The Courier's plant was built specifically for that model and is Ford's newest plant outside of China. Maybe they that would allow the Connect to shift production back to Turkey and free up Valencia.

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15 hours ago, jpd80 said:

My take is that it's the VW Caddy reskinned as Transit Connect in Europe and ROW,

it's basically the reciprocal of Ford Transit replacing VW Transporter.

 

from what I can find, the press releases just say "Ford will make a 'larger' commercial van for VW, while VW will make a 'city van' for Ford.

 

They've done well with the Connect, I find it hard that they'd just hand that over to VW.

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11 hours ago, ausrutherford said:

Transit is Crafter sized.

Custom is Transporter sized. 

 

I also doubt VW will use Ford for the next Transporter. It sells very well. The Crafter does not, however.

 

Remember the last Crafter was a JV with the MB Sprinter, but never sold well. The latest Crafter was developed solely, but is also rebadged as a MAN. It sells better, but not in high numbers.

 

My guess they will replace the Crafter with a rebadge of the next gen full size Transit. 

 

If Ford is replacing the Transit Courier with a VW-based model, it begs the question of what will happen to its plant? The Courier's plant was built specifically for that model and is Ford's newest plant outside of China. Maybe they that would allow the Connect to shift production back to Turkey and free up Valencia.

Precisely and the missing piece that most don't know is that Transporter and Amarok are on the same platform

so rather than expending resources on those two, VW is just going to outsource supply to Ford.

 

Transit and Transit Custom are built together in the same plant, they follow the same build sequence

regardless of size difference or powertrain drive which is loaded from below on an engine cradle

or subframe. It wouldn't surprise me that Transit and Transit are very close cousins if not extension s

of the same platform.

 

Glad to be proven wrong on this but this is all great news for Ford and VW who both benefit in ways

that matter to their own organisations.

Edited by jpd80
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On 5/30/2020 at 4:08 AM, ausrutherford said:

Transit is Crafter sized.

Custom is Transporter sized. 

 

I also doubt VW will use Ford for the next Transporter. It sells very well. The Crafter does not, however.

 

Remember the last Crafter was a JV with the MB Sprinter, but never sold well. The latest Crafter was developed solely, but is also rebadged as a MAN. It sells better, but not in high numbers.

 

My guess they will replace the Crafter with a rebadge of the next gen full size Transit. 

 

If Ford is replacing the Transit Courier with a VW-based model, it begs the question of what will happen to its plant? The Courier's plant was built specifically for that model and is Ford's newest plant outside of China. Maybe they that would allow the Connect to shift production back to Turkey and free up Valencia.

 

VW is converting the Hannover plant where Transporter is built to assemble ID electric cars. So while it has not confirmed what van Ford will be making for VW, it is pretty obvious that it will be Transporter. VW also skipped an update on the Transporter. It was supposed to move to MQB architecture but VW opted for a mild facelift instead. So all signs points to the model on borrowed time. 

 

Crafter is only 2 years old and VW spent a lot of money on it, including the EV version which was the main reason why it was internally developed vs. the previous version which was shared with Daimler. It may eventually be replaced by Transit but it's not going to be for a while. 

 

Transit Courier is made in Turkey by Otosan. If Ford is going to build a rebadged Transit Custom for VW to replace Transporter, it will need more capacity. My thinking is that Ford will cancel Transit Courier so that capacity can be used to build the VW version of Custom. And in return, VW will build a small van (which it may have been planning to do anyway) to replace Transit Courier.

 

Transit Connect is the big unknown. We know it is going to be build in Mexico for the US market so that means Valencia is losing a significant volume. Do you move that back to Turkey or you export it from Mexico? It's a key model for Ford in Europe so I don't see them walking away from it. 

 

 

Edited by bzcat
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On 6/1/2020 at 12:54 PM, bzcat said:

 

VW is converting the Hannover plant where Transporter is built to assemble ID electric cars. So while it has not confirmed what van Ford will be making for VW, it is pretty obvious that it will be Transporter. VW also skipped an update on the Transporter. It was supposed to move to MQB architecture but VW opted for a mild facelift instead. So all signs points to the model on borrowed time. 

 

Crafter is only 2 years old and VW spent a lot of money on it, including the EV version which was the main reason why it was internally developed vs. the previous version which was shared with Daimler. It may eventually be replaced by Transit but it's not going to be for a while. 

 

Transit Courier is made in Turkey by Otosan. If Ford is going to build a rebadged Transit Custom for VW to replace Transporter, it will need more capacity. My thinking is that Ford will cancel Transit Courier so that capacity can be used to build the VW version of Custom. And in return, VW will build a small van (which it may have been planning to do anyway) to replace Transit Courier.

 

Transit Connect is the big unknown. We know it is going to be build in Mexico for the US market so that means Valencia is losing a significant volume. Do you move that back to Turkey or you export it from Mexico? It's a key model for Ford in Europe so I don't see them walking away from it. 

 

 

 

The next Transporter will be a VW, not a badge engineered Transit Custom:

https://www.motor1.com/news/427616/volkswagen-t7-trasporter-spied-alps/

I was going to argue and tell you that you're loco, but now I don't have to...

The Transporter is a VW icon, going back to 1950. There's no way VW is going to badge engineer the Transporter. 

 

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On 6/9/2020 at 1:16 AM, jpd80 said:

I found an article before where Diess was reportedly discussing Transit - Crafter tie up which sounds more likely.

 

 

 

Hackett clarified in the investor conference this week that the van Ford will produce for VW is a "one-ton" commercial van.

 

One-ton is a US-centric term but it basically means the large Transit and therefore a replacement for the just launched VW Crafter. So I was wrong about it being Transporter.

 

 

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1 hour ago, bzcat said:

 

Hackett clarified in the investor conference this week that the van Ford will produce for VW is a "one-ton" commercial van.

 

One-ton is a US-centric term but it basically means the large Transit and therefore a replacement for the just launched VW Crafter. So I was wrong about it being Transporter.

 

 

It's easily done when there's changes happening in other areas like Hannover plant reconfigure but

we're definitely seeing different plans for global versus North America, especially commercial vehicles.

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25 minutes ago, PRH60 said:

However the media kit produced by ford would suggest that it is related to the ford transit custom and vw transporter vehicles.

Ford-VW Alliance_arial_eu-1 (1).jpg

If indeed it is Transit Custom and Transporter, that would be a major coup for Ford. As explained above, Transporter was recently renewed, so if BW walks away from that, there must be a major cost saving outsourcing to Ford.

i look forward to the alliance sharing more information beyond hints in the media.

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1 hour ago, passis said:

Are there new developments on the Mexican Transit Connect?

 

Unclear but we know the pickup truck is going forward. 

3 hours ago, passis said:

There is also this picture

Ford-VW-Alliance-768x416.webp

 

Here is the updated version that fixed the typo. So my original guess was correct... Ford will build Transporter and Amarok replacement and VW will supply Ford with a new Transit Connect (at least in Europe).

 

ford_vw_040.jpg?scale=down

 

VW is giving Transporter a quick update which should last a few more years until a Ford designed van comes out. I'm guessing 2022 or 23.

 

Timing on Transit Connect will be interesting. The caption says Caddy 5, but given that Caddy 4 has yet to go on sale (production start in Poland was suspended due to Covid) it means this is a long term product map, not an intimidate one. Ford is probably pretty far down the road on the new Transit Connect so we are probably talking about VW Caddy 5 replacing Transit Connect around 2027 or 28

Edited by bzcat
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4 hours ago, PRH60 said:

However the media kit produced by ford would suggest that it is related to the ford transit custom and vw transporter vehicles.

Ford-VW Alliance_arial_eu-1 (1).jpg

 

Anyone find it weird that odd that they use the Transit Courier is one picture and then the Transit Connect in another?

 

Also, they specifically show only the 1 ton "cargo van" as being shared...but not the passenger versions....

 

hmm...

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The Transporter is not the equivalent of the Transit, it is approximately the same size as the Transit Custom(and thus not a one ton van). And there is a disconnect between the Ford slide and the article that I linked. The article described an all-new Transporter on a VW platform. Maybe the Crafter name is going away in favor of a Transporter "Max"(?) to take advantage of the long lived iconic model name.

Edited by AGR
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1 hour ago, AGR said:

The Transporter is not the equivalent of the Transit, it is approximately the same size as the Transit Custom(and thus not a one ton van). And there is a disconnect between the Ford slide and the article that I linked. The article described an all-new Transporter on a VW platform. Maybe the Crafter name is going away in favor of a Transporter "Max"(?) to take advantage of the long lived iconic model name.

The alliance was to be with commercial vehicles but I wonder if the more VW looked at Ford's vehicles, the more it liked.

If VW is as awe struck with transit as they are with Ranger, this is an easy sell.

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6 hours ago, AGR said:

The Transporter is not the equivalent of the Transit, it is approximately the same size as the Transit Custom(and thus not a one ton van). 

I checked this and by golly, the commercial Transporter indeed has  1 tonne carrying capacity

And actually, up to 1415 Kg depending on configuration.Transit Custom is 750-1,500 Kg load capacity.....

 

This is interesting because if this is Transit custom contract, then the Turkey plant has a lot of

room for capacity increase, it's a separate plant to full size Transit

Edited by jpd80
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