Jump to content

Ford Will Use VW's MEB EV Platform at OAC


Recommended Posts

Wow, this was a bombshell contained in the end of an article on BEVs. 

Quote

Hau Thai-Tang, Ford Motor Co.’s chief of product platform and operations, said during a conference on Wednesday organized by J.P. Morgan, Ford’s first battery-electric pickup truck will be ready for market during the first quarter of 2022. “It will be the F-150 BEV,” Thai-Tang. 

During recently completed negotiations with Unifor, the union representing Canadian autoworkers, Ford pledged to begin building electrified vehicles at its Oakville, Ontario, by the time the contract expires at the end of 2023.

Ford is planning to borrow Volkswagen’s all-electric platform, the MEB, to serve as underpinnings for a new family of crossover vehicles that will be built in Oakville with Ford designs or top hats and other features and characteristics from Ford, Thai-Tang said.

 

Assuming the veracity of the quotes from today's J.P. Morgan call, I consider this a big deal. Previous understanding was MEB use was limited to Europe, and Ford would have its own bespoke Gen2 EV chassis at Oakville. Obviously not the case. This also makes me wonder why this change was made: is MEB superior to what Ford had designed, was Ford 'that far' behind on EV work and had to take this route, does using MEB allow Ford to conserve capital to be better deployed for other investment (versus developing another EV chassis), or... ?

 

Full article: https://www.thedetroitbureau.com/2021/02/fords-all-electric-f-150-on-track-for-2022-debut/

Edited by Harley Lover
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't know, I'm not surprised.  Why wouldn't Ford use the VW MEB platform?  Ford said, when they partnered with VW past year, that "Volkswagen and Ford also are committed to exploring potential collaboration on EVs, autonomous vehicles and mobility services."  Sounds like that's exactly what they are doing.

 

https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/news/2019/01/15/volkswagen-ford-alliance.html#:~:text=Through the alliance%2C Ford will,and build a city van.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Harley Lover said:

is MEB superior to what Ford had designed, was Ford 'that far' behind on EV work and had to take this route, does using MEB allow Ford to conserve capital to be better deployed for other investment (versus developing another EV chassis)

 

Probably all of the above.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Harley Lover said:

Wow, this was a bombshell contained in the end of an article on BEVs. 

 

Assuming the veracity of the quotes from today's J.P. Morgan call, I consider this a big deal. Previous understanding was MEB use was limited to Europe, and Ford would have its own bespoke Gen2 EV chassis at Oakville. Obviously not the case. This also makes me wonder why this change was made: is MEB superior to what Ford had designed, was Ford 'that far' behind on EV work and had to take this route, does using MEB allow Ford to conserve capital to be better deployed for other investment (versus developing another EV chassis), or... ?

 

Full article: https://www.thedetroitbureau.com/2021/02/fords-all-electric-f-150-on-track-for-2022-debut/

As an employee of OAC I consider this music to my ears! 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

49 minutes ago, probowler said:

I don't know if I'd call copying VWs homework "Going all-in" but at least they're capitalizing on their partnership with them.

 

Ford isn't "copying VW's homework" but working as a team with VW as one of the players.

 

The name of the game is survival in an industry that will be 100% electric, 100% autonomous, with mobility services a key component. Ford must collaborate with other companies such as VW, Rivian, and Google in order to win.

 

 

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, rperez817 said:

The name of the game is survival in an industry that will be 100% electric, 100% autonomous, with mobility services a key component. Ford must collaborate with other companies such as VW, Rivian, and Google in order to win.

 

Just like you keep parroting that the 1.5 I3 Ecoboost is rough in its applications, Autonomous is still a pipe dream that will be lucky to be viable when I can't drive any more (which is like 35-40 years from now)

  • Like 5
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, silvrsvt said:

Also lets not get ahead  of ourselves...I don't see any official word from Ford, nor do I see any other website/news groups reporting on this.

 

It just sounds like a rumor for the time being....and who ever wrote this is just trying to connect dots without any insider info. 

 

No rumor.  Hau Thai-Tang said it.  Listen to the earnings call.

  • Like 3
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, silvrsvt said:

Just like you keep parroting that the 1.5 I3 Ecoboost is rough in its applications

 

1 hour ago, silvrsvt said:

Also lets not get ahead  of ourselves...I don't see any official word from Ford, nor do I see any other website/news groups reporting on this.

 

There is no mention of 1.5 I3 Ecoboost anywhere in this thread or in the linked Detroit Bureau article, except for your comment. Also, the "official word" came directly from a Ford executive, Hau Thai Tang.

 

Thanks for confirming that reading comprehension is not required to be a moderator on this site.

Edited by rperez817
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Harley Lover said:

Wow, this was a bombshell contained in the end of an article on BEVs. 

 

Assuming the veracity of the quotes from today's J.P. Morgan call, I consider this a big deal. Previous understanding was MEB use was limited to Europe, and Ford would have its own bespoke Gen2 EV chassis at Oakville. Obviously not the case. This also makes me wonder why this change was made: is MEB superior to what Ford had designed, was Ford 'that far' behind on EV work and had to take this route, does using MEB allow Ford to conserve capital to be better deployed for other investment (versus developing another EV chassis), or... ?

 

Full article: https://www.thedetroitbureau.com/2021/02/fords-all-electric-f-150-on-track-for-2022-debut/

 

I look at it more that if they already have this toolkit available to them as part of the partnership, why bother further investing in their own platform for the same segments that MEB can already cover, when resources for that in-house program could be shifted to another segment (say, for example.....a Ranger or Bronco BEV)?  Unless the long term goal is to eventually completely move away from VW's MEB to in-house platforms, there's no reason to duplicate efforts and waste resources.

 

4 hours ago, T-dubz said:

Hopefully ford will design something better than what VW has been able to do. All of VW’s ID vehicles they have shown so far have looked terrible in my opinion.

 

Well, the article said it'd be Ford top hats, so you'd have a Ford design just with VW's MEB underpinnings.

 

3 hours ago, silvrsvt said:

Also lets not get ahead  of ourselves...I don't see any official word from Ford, nor do I see any other website/news groups reporting on this.

 

It just sounds like a rumor for the time being....and who ever wrote this is just trying to connect dots without any insider info. 

 

I mean, the author said Thai Tang said it, so if true, that's definitely a legitimate source.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So much for the people trying to tell us that MEB is not suitable for Ford  North America.

VW has spent a fortune developing its electric tool kit and Ford would be crazy not to use it.

 

Wall Street will be impressed, maybe Ford stock is set for a nice rise in value.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

54 minutes ago, AGR said:

Wow, Ford is having to rely on another automaker for their EV push. As much as I want to blame office furniture guy, this is clearly on Fields. It's not the first thing that we've found out that he dropped the ball on.

In a way, Fields did Ford a favour by dragging his heels on rolling out new vehicles,

it forced Hackett and Farley to realise that some of Ford's own design  BEV projects

 were just an expensive waste of time. Had Ford signed up sooner, I dare say that the 

mid sized BEV  utilities designed by Ford might have also been canned for VW MEBs.

 

Edited by jpd80
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, silvrsvt said:

 

Autonomous is still a pipe dream that will be lucky to be viable when I can't drive any more (which is like 35-40 years from now)

Other than the Edward Scissorhands character, anyone else notice the second-most creepy feature in Cadillac's Super Bowl commercial in which they falsely claimed that their Super Cruise driver's assistance feature was fully autonomous and didn't actually need a driver (or at least one with hands) at all? 

 

Edited by Gurgeh
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, AGR said:

Wow, Ford is having to rely on another automaker for their EV push. 

 

Yes sir AGR, as I mentioned earlier Ford must collaborate with others in order to win. They chose good teammates. VW is also "all in" with BEV, and Rivian of course has been 100% electric vehicles from the beginning.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, mackinaw said:

 

No rumor.  Hau Thai-Tang said it.  Listen to the earnings call.

 

14 hours ago, mackinaw said:

I don't know, I'm not surprised.  Why wouldn't Ford use the VW MEB platform?  Ford said, when they partnered with VW past year, that "Volkswagen and Ford also are committed to exploring potential collaboration on EVs, autonomous vehicles and mobility services."  Sounds like that's exactly what they are doing.

 

https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/news/2019/01/15/volkswagen-ford-alliance.html#:~:text=Through the alliance%2C Ford will,and build a city van.

 

The link you've provided is two years old.

 

No other news organization has picked up on this story...

 

Link to conference call...go to the 29 minute remark and there is ZERO mention of the MEB platform being used in NA by Hau

 

https://78449.choruscall.com/dataconf/productusers/f/mediaframe/43526/indexr.html


I didn't listen to the whole thing in its entirety but scrubbed through it and that is the only place I can find it mentioned 

 

Edited by silvrsvt
Link to comment
Share on other sites

48 minutes ago, Gurgeh said:

Other than the Edward Scissorhands character, anyone else notice the second-most creepy feature in Cadillac's Super Bowl commercial in which they falsely claimed that their Super Cruise driver's assistance feature was fully autonomous and didn't actually need a driver (or at least one with hands) at all? 

 

That is because on certain roads and highways it doesn't.  It says right there "Hands Free Super Cruise Driver Assistance Feature for Compatible Roads."  They never claim it is fully autonomous.  Fully autonomous is level 5.  This is like a level 2 to level 3 system on geofenced roads.  Tesla autopilot is also a level 2 driver assistance, but requires hands on wheel because it is not geofenced.

 

https://www.truecar.com/blog/5-levels-autonomous-vehicles/

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, rperez817 said:

There is no mention of 1.5 I3 Ecoboost anywhere in this thread or in the linked Detroit Bureau article, except for your comment. Also, the "official word" came directly from a Ford executive, Hau Thai Tang.

 

Thanks for confirming that reading comprehension is not required to be a moderator on this site.

 

No, but your biases are well known commodity here

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, jpd80 said:

So much for the people trying to tell us that MEB is not suitable for Ford  North America.

VW has spent a fortune developing its electric tool kit and Ford would be crazy not to use it.

 

Wall Street will be impressed, maybe Ford stock is set for a nice rise in value.

 

Ford's stock price is set to rise anyway because Rivian is now preparing to go public. Based on the estimated value for Rivian, Ford's 20% stake in Rivian is worth 4 or 5 times of what Ford is trading now so the valuation doesn't make any sense. 

 

As for using MEB in North America, I figured it was only a matter of time. Ford figured it couldn't engineer the smaller size EV and still make a profit so using MEB was a smart way to go forward. I still expect Ford to use its own chassis design on bigger EVs.

 

The smaller EV going to OAC is Corsair (and probably Escape) so makes sense that they will use MEB. That leaves open Ohio as home to bigger EV as previously planned. Also opens the question of what will happen to Louisville and Chicago down the road. Those UNIFOR guys played their hand pretty well to get in on the EV first.

 

Edited by bzcat
Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, rperez817 said:

 

 

There is no mention of 1.5 I3 Ecoboost anywhere in this thread or in the linked Detroit Bureau article, except for your comment. Also, the "official word" came directly from a Ford executive, Hau Thai Tang.

 

Thanks for confirming that reading comprehension is not required to be a moderator on this site.

Holy cats, the irony of flaming someone on reading comprehension when you've completely missed his point is just staggering.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Flying68 said:

 

That is because on certain roads and highways it doesn't.  It says right there "Hands Free Super Cruise Driver Assistance Feature for Compatible Roads."  They never claim it is fully autonomous.  Fully autonomous is level 5.  This is like a level 2 to level 3 system on geofenced roads.  Tesla autopilot is also a level 2 driver assistance, but requires hands on wheel because it is not geofenced.

 

https://www.truecar.com/blog/5-levels-autonomous-vehicles/

Did you watch the ad? They showed it be a driverless (or at least steeringless) feature. From home, to out on the roads to back home again, there was Edward behind the wheel the whole way.

Edited by Gurgeh
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Flying68 said:

 

That is because on certain roads and highways it doesn't.  It says right there "Hands Free Super Cruise Driver Assistance Feature for Compatible Roads."  They never claim it is fully autonomous.  Fully autonomous is level 5.  This is like a level 2 to level 3 system on geofenced roads.  Tesla autopilot is also a level 2 driver assistance, but requires hands on wheel because it is not geofenced.

 

https://www.truecar.com/blog/5-levels-autonomous-vehicles/

 

Level 5 is a long ways off, and if/when it does become a reality it's all but certain it will only be operational on specific (geofenced) roads.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...