Correct, but that decision came later when Ford approached VW with the rebadge in exchange for MEB. The original VW Commercial plan was to replace T6 Transporter and Caravelle with Buzz. The high end Multivan and California moved over to MQB passenger car platform.    Transporter T6 --> ID Buzz Cargo / rebadged Transit Custom Caravelle T6 --> ID Buzz / rebadged Tourneo Custom Multivan T6 --> Multivan T7 California T6 --> California T7

Of course, although I imagine if they start the MSRP around $30,000 for the lower trims they probably can’t get north of $50k for the highest trims. If the idea here is to provide affordable EVs, which probably means cost-competitive with similar ICE, Cox says the ATP of compact SUVs (which even tho the skunk truck is not, if its anything like the maverick it should be basically comparable to a compact SUV) is ~$37k right now. If the capex is $5 bn and the COG for these EVs out of Louisville can be like $28k (which I think is what Tesla does on the Model 3? *A lot* of guesswork here.) then making gross $9k on each EV sold at 100,000/yr puts you at nearly 6 years before you recoup investment before considering sg&a, depreciation, etc.    the breakeven target is 2029, which would mean they want to do it in 2-3 years. My math is of course extreme guesswork and I ignored a lot of shit that could come into play but I imagine they’d need to be somewhere close to 200k/yr to actually meet that, at least above 150k/yr. They could be happy with those numbers since they’d at least justify the investment and replace the sales volume lost from the Escape with products presumably carrying a better cost structure.

Except they still have the Transporter and Caravelle vans - Ford produces them for VW now....

The porthole window is product design decision. Buzz was envisioned as a cargo van too so VW wanted thin interior panels to maximize interior volume. Normal roll down windows will intrude into the interior and also make the sliding door more heavy to operate. Remember, Buzz is a product of VW Commercial, not VW Cars. Technically, it replaced the T6 Transporter and T6 Caravelle vans (Buzz is made in the VWC Hannover plant where T6 vans were made).         

This latest Job2 (Job2.5?) update brought back a bunch of Free Standing Option items. Tow package, keyless pad, spare tire, a few others too. Nice to see not just options coming back, but as FSO rather than "you have to get this package for $3460 to get the $190 item you actually want". If the lineup is going to be pared down, make it "build it how you want it" and ditch the old catalog style system that should have died with the Fusion. Not that I think the Fusion should have been killed off, just the timing of it. Bringing catalog ordering to the Fusion was awful to deal with. It's somewhat persisted to current vehicles, mostly as package things.

Suzuki has a small vehicle named Jimny.     I always thought the Jimmy name was stupid.

Not surprised.  GM has watched Jeep and Bronco walk away with the off-road (lucrative) market.  Guess they're tired of siting on the sidelines.

They had savings  left over after they replaced the opening moonroof with fixed glass on Explorer.  

From what I remember, the GMC version of K5 Blazer started out as Jimmy (with two m's)  

I may be wrong (not the first time...) but didn't the GMC version start out as Jimny?