Ford Motor and Volkswagen have announced their alliance to focus on electric vehicles and autonomous tech development. This includes an investment of $7 Billion in Argo AI, a startup which has been working on the development of autonomous cars. The alliance will see Ford use Volkswagen’s MED platform, which will be used in the development of consumer electric vehicles. The MEB platform is already planned for use across a number of announced vehicles to be released by Volkswagen and Volkswagen group automakers, including Audi, SEAT, Skoda and more between 2019 and 2023.
Interestingly, Ford will be the first automaker outside the Volkswagen group to make use of the MEB platform. It is believed that the American automaker plans to deliver over 6,00,000 cars based on the MEB platform for the European market. Speaking on the occasion, Jim Hackett, Ford President and CEO said, “While Ford and Volkswagen remain independent and fiercely competitive in the marketplace, teaming up and working with Argo AI on this important technology allows us to deliver unmatched capability, scale and geographic reach.”
