Volkswagen Partners with Ford On Truck Projects

Tuesday morning two automakers, Ford Motor Co. and Volkswagen AG made an announcement that has spurred some conversations in the enthusiast community. These two automakers shook hands on a plan to develop and produce medium size pickup trucks as well as small commercial vans. If you are like us and Volkswagen enthusiasts at heart, you have been yearning to see a VW badged truck hit the US market.

We have watched over overseas friends get to enjoy the Amarok for all too long. The best we have been able to do is go back to some roots with some vintage VW heritage like the the VW pickup of the 1980s’.

Pic 1. 1981 Volkswagen Pickup. Brochure images courtesy of TheSamba.com.

Pic 2. Interior in blue leatherette.

Not only will these two automotive giants collaborate on a truck initiative but they revealed plans to cooperate on electric and autonomous vehicles.  By sharing platforms and manufacturing plants with Ford, Herbert Diess (CEO of Volkswagen AG) said ” [it] provides a very competitive scale effect, in this segment, with the effect that jointly we will become number one in this market segment.”

Medium sized pickup trucks are set to hit the global markets as soon as 2022, commercial vans to shortly follow.

With this partnership and the moves towards EV and other autonomous vehicles we just have to think companies are trying to strike partnerships to chip away at the growing market share of Tesla who just released their plans to push Model 3 into the mass market.

Fan of the Humble Mechanic? Check out his two cents on this new partnership below: