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February 04, 2021 01:23 AM

Ford will add VW pickup production at South Africa plant

Nick Gibbs
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    The Ranger Thunder is one of the Ranger's pickup versions built in South Africa.

    Ford Motor is increasing capacity at its South African plant to add production of Volkswagen’s successor to the Amarok pickup.

    Ford is developing the Amarok’s successor alongside its next Ranger as part of a partnership between the two automakers that covers light commercial vehicles, midsize pickups and electric and self-driving vehicles.

    Ford exports the current Ranger to Europe from the plant from its Silverton plant near Pretoria  The company is investing $686 million into the factory to increase annual capacity to 200,000 units from 168,000, Ford said in a statement.

    The new investment will support production of the new Ranger for the domestic market and export to more than 100 global markets, starting in 2022, Ford said. The plant also will manufacture VW pickups as part of the Ford-VW strategic alliance, the company said.

    The Amarok successor could be exported to Europe along with the Ranger, although neither automaker would not comment on production plans for the VW pickup.

    The Ranger was the biggest-selling pickup in Europe last year with a 35 percent market share, Ford said. The company sold 43,128 Rangers in the region in 2020.

    VW ended production of the Amarok at its Hanover plant in Germany last year. The factory is being retooled to build the ID Buzz, a modern, full-electric version of VW's Microbus that became a 1960s icon, and flagship electric cars for Audi, Porsche and Bentley.

    Pickup struggles

    European automakers have struggled to compete in the medium pickup market.

    Mercedes-Benz last year ended production of the X-Class pickup, which was built in Nissan’s plant in Barcelona, Spain, along with the Renault Alaskan. Both models were based on the Nissan Navara.Renault hasn’t said whether it will continue sales of the Alaskan in Europe after Nissan shutters the Barcelona plant this year.

    Fiat has axed its Fullback version of the Mitsubishi L200 pickup, while Mitsubishi will exit the European market altogether at the end of this year.

    Ford’s announcement on its South African investment comes a month after the company disclosed plans for a $2.6 billion investment in its Transit van factory in Turkey to increase the capacity to 650,000 vehicles from 440,000.

    The investment in the Turkish plant was to incorporate production of the VW Transporter midsize van, which Ford is also engineering for VW, a source told Automotive News Europe.

    As part of the partnership, VW will engineer a compact van for Ford based on its new Caddy. Both vehicles will be built at VW’s plant in Poznan, Poland.

    The alliance will also see Ford using VW's MEB electric platform to build a mass-market battery-powered car positioned below Ford's forthcoming Mach E SUV. The Ford MEB car will be built in its plant in Cologne and will go on sale in 2023, according to German media reports.

    Christiaan Hetzner contributed to this report

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