Volkswagen may share MEB EV platform with Ford

Volkswagen may grant Ford access to the company's upcoming MEB electric car platform as part of wide-ranging collaboration talks between the two car makers.

During a conference call discussing the German automaker's third quarter results, Frank Witter, the Volkswagen Group's chief financial officer (CFO), told Automotive News and other outlets, "Whether we might provide access [to MEB] to other brands outside of the VW Group is theoretically possible, but there is no decision".

In June, Ford and Volkswagen signed a memorandum of understanding, and began investigating joint development of commercial vehicles.

Late last month, Bob Shanks, Ford's CFO, confirmed rumours the two companies were expanding the scope of their exploratory talks beyond just commercial vehicles.

"Collaboration isn’t being limited in any way whatsoever, whether it’s different types of technology, product segments or geography," Shanks told Bloomberg in an interview.

In the wake of the expensive and long-running Dieselgate scandal, where it used software to cheat some of its diesel engines past emission tests, the Volkswagen Group has invested heavily to develop a new fleet of electric vehicles.

One architecture, known as MEB, will be used as the basis for 27 electric cars across the company's four mass market brands: Volkswagen, Skoda, Seat and Audi.

A production version of the Golf-sized Volkswagen ID hatch is due to go into production towards the end of 2019 at the company's factory in Zwickau, Germany.

In time the company hopes to build as many as 10 million electric vehicles using the first-generation MEB component set. Adding models from the Ford and, possibly, Lincoln brands into the mix would no doubt help with economies of scale, and reduce the risk of the project.

Ford is also busy developing its first mass-produced electric car, a crossover with Mustang-inspired styling and handling, which is due to go on sale globally from 2020.

The Detroit car maker also plans to launch 40 electrified cars, including 16 EVs, by 2022 as part of a US$11 billion ($15 billion) investment in the segment. A number of these will be China-only models developed in conjunction with local carmaker Zotye.

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