VW and Ford may team up to jointly develop electric/self-driving cars

Volkswagen AG and Ford Motor Co are said to be in speculative talks to jointly develop self-driving and electric vehicles.

Both these mass-market companies will soon provide more info on such an alliance before year end, an unnamed insider told Reuters.

"Our (memorandum of understanding) with VW covers conversations about potential collaborations across a number of areas. It is premature to share additional details at this time," a Ford spokesman said.

A Volkswagen spokesman said the car maker was open to deeper alliances with outside companies, particularly in the area of autonomous driving, while adding that "sharing the car maker’s electric cars platform MEB with Ford was theoretically possible, although VW is currently focused on rolling out the electric vehicle technologies among its own brands".

Spokesmen for both manufacturers would only reiterated what they have said before about the companies collaborating on the development of commercial vehicles.

Car makers globally are discussing teaming up to share the cost of developing autonomous and electric vehicles. Honda said in November it would invest $2.75bn and take a stake in General Motors’ Cruise Automation self-driving vehicle unit to jointly develop autonomous vehicles for deployment in ride service fleets globally.

VW and Ford are under pressure to roll out more EVs in Europe, where emissions rules are being tightened in the wake of Volkswagen’s diesel emissions pollution scandal.