Ford Partner Volkswagen Won’t Delay Its EV Ambitions

Ford and Volkswagen entered into a partnership agreement back in 2020 that has already seen the two companies collaborate on a number of new vehicles as a way to share costs. That includes the Ford Ranger based Volkswagen Amarok, the European Ford Explorer EV – which is underpinned by VW’s MEB platform – and a variety of other current and future models. However, in recent months, Volkswagen has announced that it won’t be building an EV pickup just yet, and that it’s also pushing back its plans to create a cheaper EV – something that Ford has been working on for around two years now. Given this and the fact that several other automakers – including Ford – are delaying investments in EVs as demand wanes, it would seem like that VW would follow suit. However, that isn’t the case at all, according to Reuters.

In fact, Volkswagen reportedly plans to stick with its goal of launching 25 new all-electric models in North America across its entire portfolio by 2030 -including the revived Scout brand – even though it has lower expectations when it comes to actually generating a profit from those vehicles.

“When I look at the data from January, the (EV) segment continues to grow,” said Pablo Di Si, head of Volkswagen’s North American business. Di Si added that the company has already approved a group of mid-size and larger EV crossovers specifically slated for the U.S. as it aims to capture 10 percent of that market by 2030 as well.

However, Di Si did acknowledge that demand for EVs, in general, is slowing, and added that in the U.S., continued government incentives and additional charging infrastructure are desperately needed – particularly in “middle America,” where EV adoption is lagging behind more densely-populated areas.

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