The Ford-Volkswagen alliance has been brewing for a couple of years now. Things started looking stale in between, but it looks like everything is getting back on track.
According to Ford Authority, the alliance between the two automakers is expected to be finalized by the end of June. Also, the German automaker’s board has approved several projects, one of which is a new Ford electric vehicle that will be underpinned by Volkswagen’s MEB platform. Do you think it will be a badge-engineered ID.4 crossover?
What Will The First Vehicle From This Alliance Be?
Not a lot is known about the new Ford EV except that it will be built on Volkswagen’s MEB architecture. The German automaker developed this modular car platform for electric vehicles. There are several models in Audi's, Skoda's, and Volkswagen’s lineup that are pinned on the MEB platform.
The outlet mentioned that the new EV will be built specifically for the European markets where the emission norms are a lot more stringent than in the U.S.
The latter makes more sense considering the customer preference and market trend, but since the European countries will be receiving the Mach-E, Ford would be interested in building something smaller. Perhaps, even a hatch could be in the reckoning.
Does A Badge-Engineered ID4 Make Sense?
Given the odds, there is a high chance of a badge-engineered ID4 crossover becoming the first product of this marriage. Since it will be the first product, companies will try to keep the research and development costs low and re-badging the car makes more sense than developing one from scratch. It checks all the boxes to make sure the first car to come out of the alliance will not bomb in the market. Both the automakers would also look to test the waters with this before they splurge a larger amount on a product.
Final Thoughts
It depends on how you look at it, but I’ve never gotten my head around re-badged products. Apart from a few changes here and there, it is essentially one product being sold with two different names. What you generally expect from mergers and alliances is the combined technical knowhow culminating into one fantastic product that has the genes of both parents. But, once in a while, you get the same vehicle with two different names just to garner some extra market share. In this case, I hope it’s a new vehicle based on the MEB platform rather than a re-badged ID4.
If you were in the market for the Volkswagen ID4 crossover, would you consider the same crossover with a Ford badge? Or would you stick to the original manufacturer? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.