Ford CEO Jim Farley Says Global EV Strategy Includes Partnerships

Ford signed a landmark partnership agreement with Volkswagen a few years ago, and it has led to the introduction of several new models since then – including both ICE and all-electric vehicles with shared components. That includes, of course, the European Ford Explorer EV, as well as the Ford Capri EV, both of which ride on VW’s MEB platform. By all accounts, Ford and VW’s partnership has paid off for both automakers in terms of sharing development and production costs, and figures to continue to grow moving forward – particularly in the EV space.

“Globally, we’re focused heavily on partnerships. Partnerships for EV, we think, is the right strategy,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said during the automaker’s Q2 2025 earnings call with investors. “We believe that the supply chain and the platforms are quickly commoditizing. You cannot differentiate yourself on that aspect, especially for a vehicle.”

It’s unclear what sort of companies Ford is eyeing for these EV partnerships, but it stands to reason that it may continue to expand its relationship with VW. Volkswagen’s head of sales and marketing, Martin Sander, previously said that he feels like Ford and VW’s partnership has been “very, very, very successful” thus far, adding that he does “not want to rule out that there are future opportunities here to share technology again.” That agreement created “an opportunity for [VW] to scale even more than we can, on the basis of the size of our business.”

Regardless, this isn’t the first time that Farley has hinted at more future EV partnerships. Back in July 2024, he stated that “the ambition at Ford for partnering on EVs is record level high. We’re not going to make any announcements in earning call, but this is absolutely a flip the-script moment for our company. We have done partnerships like Volkswagen. We have learned how successful.” We also know that Ford plans to add more cars to its European lineup by 2027, and that at least some of those models are being developed with partners.