Volkswagen and Ford are set to formalize their alliance on Tuesday, in a move that could help both automakers speed up and save money on their development of electric and autonomous car technology.
The German and U.S. firm said back in June last year that they were considering such a partnership, possibly in order to jointly develop commercial vehicles.
On Monday, VW CEO Hebert Diess told reporters that the announcement was coming Tuesday, at the Detroit Auto Show.
How big will the alliance be? That’s hard to judge at this point, but the companies have strongly maintained that there won’t be any equity or ownership arrangements involved.
According to Reuters, it’s likely that Ford will license VW’s modular electric drive matrix, or MEB, electric-vehicle platform. VW said last year that it would have 27 MEB-based models in production worldwide by the end of 2022, under its own brands, which also include Audi and Skoda.
In return, Reuters reported Diess as saying on Monday, VW will gain access to Ford’s Ranger pickup platform. VW may also invest in Ford’s autonomous vehicle technology development efforts.