Tie-up with Ford is 'intensifying,' VW CEO Blume says

Volkswagen Group is "intensifying" its EV partnership with Ford, VW Group CEO Oliver Blume said.

Ford will unveil its first full-electric car based on VW's MEB platform on March 21.

Ford has said it is scaling back its reliance on the MEB in the longer term and will build its next-generation EVs for Europe on an inhouse, software-defined architecture due by the end of the decade.

Blume said the industrial partnership between VW and Ford is strong and growing.

"We only at the beginning of our cooperation project," Blume said while presenting VW Group's 2022 results on Tuesday.

VW and Ford are also partnered on commercial vehicle projects, including the new Ford Ranger and VW Amarok, which Ford builds at its South Africa plant.

As part of the van partnership, VW is building the Ford Tourneo Connect compact passenger van alongside its Caddy in Poland and will later add the Transit Connect van, which is currently built in Ford’s plant in Valencia, Spain.

Ford will build VW a version of its new Transit Custom at its plant in Turkey.

The automakers said in 2020 that they would produce a total of 8 million commercial vehicles together.

Mahindra 'on track'

VW is also on track with a deal to supply the MEB platform to Indian vehicle maker Mahindra, Blume said. "The agreement with Mahindra is about to be concluded," he said.

More than 1 million vehicles will be produced by Mahindra’s XUV and BE brands over the duration of the deal, VW said in a statement last year.