(qlmbusinessnews.com via cityam.com – – Wed, 20 June 2018) London, Uk – –
Volkswagen (VW) and Ford are mulling a strategic alliance to jointly develop a new range of commercial cars.
The car companies said there were investigating several joint projects that would strengthen their competitiveness while serving the “evolving needs” of consumers.
VW and Ford said any strategic alliance would not involve equity arrangements, including cross ownership stakes.
Jim Farley, president of global markets at Ford, said: “Ford is committed to improving our fitness as a business and leveraging adaptive business models – which include working with partners to improve our effectiveness and efficiency. This potential alliance with the Volkswagen group is another example of how we can become more fit as a business, while creating a winning global product portfolio and extending our capabilities.
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“We look forward to exploring with the Volkswagen team in the days ahead how we might work together to better serve the evolving needs of commercial vehicle customers – and much more.”
This latest potential strategic alliance suggests further consolidation in the car industry amid tough market conditions, such as the rise of electric vehicles and declining car registrations.
Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi also signed a memorandum of understanding to integrate the three brands through its 2022 alliance, which aims to double the “annualised synergies” – or how much the companies can save by working together – to more than €10bn (£8.9bn) by the end of 2022.
Thomas Sedran, head of Volkswagen group strategy said,: “Markets and customer demand are changing at an incredible speed. Both companies have strong and complementary positions in different commercial vehicle segments already. To adapt to the challenging environment, it is of utmost importance to gain flexibility through alliances. This is a core element of our Volkswagen group strategy 2025. The potential industrial cooperation with Ford is seen as an opportunity to improve competitiveness of both companies globally.”
By Alexandra Rogers
