Skip to main content

VW and Ford partner on AV tech and EVs

Volkswagen and Ford are expanding their global alliance to focus on autonomous vehicles (AV) technology and electric vehicles (EVs). VW is to invest $2.6 billion in Argo AI, an AV technology company backed by Ford. The partners will integrate Argo AI’s self-driving system into purpose-built vehicles to support initiatives focused on moving people and goods. As part of the deal, Ford is to use VW’s EV architecture and Modular Electric Toolkit - or MEB - to deliver zero-emission vehicles in Europe f
July 18, 2019 Read time: 1 min

994 Volkswagen and 278 Ford are expanding their global alliance to focus on autonomous vehicles (AV) technology and electric vehicles (EVs).

VW is to invest $2.6 billion in Argo AI, an AV technology company backed by Ford.

The partners will integrate Argo AI’s self-driving system into purpose-built vehicles to support initiatives focused on moving people and goods.

As part of the deal, Ford is to use VW’s EV architecture and Modular Electric Toolkit - or MEB - to deliver zero-emission vehicles in Europe from 2023.

Ford is hoping to deliver more than 600,000 vehicles using the MEB architecture over six years, with a second Ford model.

VW CEO Dr. Herbert Diess says: “Scaling our MEB drives down development costs for zero-emissions vehicles, allowing for a broader and faster global adoption of EVs.”

Related Content

  • April 1, 2021
    Nuro raises $500m to develop AV tech
    Toyota's Woven Capital is among the investors in autonomous vehicle technology
  • June 14, 2012
    Euro NCAP to drive adoption of AEB systems for safer cars in Europe
    Euro NCAP (New Car Assessment Programme) has published the results of its survey on the availability of autonomous emergency braking (AEB) systems in Europe and reveals that its vehicle safety rating assessment programme will include AEB technologies in its star rating from 2014. Real world performance data suggests AEB systems can reduce accidents by up to 27 per cent. Although the introduction of these active safety technologies is reducing road deaths and injuries, the availability of AEB in Europe is fa
  • April 16, 2021
    Dubai marks new territory for Cruise AVs
    Cruise and Dubai RTA plan to scale up to 40,000 autonomous vehicles by 2030
  • September 3, 2019
    Waymo opens AV dataset to researchers
    Waymo is making its Waymo Open Dataset for autonomous vehicles (AVs) available to the research community for free. Waymo is hoping the data will help researchers make advances in 2D and 3D perception and progress in areas such as domain adaptation and behaviour prediction. The company says each segment of driving data captures 20 seconds of continuous driving, allowing researchers to develop models to track and predict the behaviour of other road users. This dataset covers dense and suburban environmen