A few years ago, Ford signed a landmark partnership agreement with Volkswagen, and that deal has since led to the introduction of several new models, including the European Ford Explorer EV and Capri EV, both of which ride on VW’s MEB platform. By all accounts, that relationship has paid off big time in terms of helping both companies reduce costs and complexity by sharing resources, which is something that Ford CEO Jim Farley touched on recently, too.
“This is a first generation where we are building for other people,” Farley said during the automaker’s Q2 2025 earnings call with investors. “We have the Volkswagen pickup truck as well as their van off our platform. We’re now starting to scale their platform and that is really helping our cost basis.”
As Farley notes here, Ford isn’t just borrowing VW’s MEB platform for its own vehicles, as the German automaker is also leaning heavily on The Blue Oval for certain models of its own as well. Those include the latest version of the Volkswagen Amarok pickup, which is based on the current generation Ford Ranger that debuted a few years ago, as well as the new Volkswagen Transporter van, itself based on the Ford Transit Custom – and it’s even built by The Blue Oval at the joint-venture Ford Otosan Assembly plant in Turkey.
With costs rising and technology developing at a rapid pace, we can certainly expect to see more partnerships like this one in the near future. In fact, Farley recently stated that the company’s global EV strategy is focused largely on partnerships with other companies – though he stopped short of naming who those companies might be. Additionally, Ford Vice Chair John Lawler said that the company will explore more partnerships with other countries earlier this year, all in an effort to maintain profitability without increasing costs.
Down 17 percent in just five years.
Behind only the Explorer and the Mach-E itself.
They might have been given Transit Trail tires.
