VW and Ford team up to make autonomous, electric vehicles
NEW YORK
Volkswagen will invest $2.6 billion into a Pittsburgh autonomous-vehicle company that’s mostly owned by Ford as the automakers deepen their partnership to develop driverless and electric vehicles in an ultra-competitive landscape.
The two automakers will become equal owners of Argo AI, and they plan to put autonomous vehicles on the roads in the U.S. and Europe as early as 2021, the companies said Friday.
The deal also includes a plan for Ford to use VW’s electric-vehicle platform to build zero-emissions cars for the European market starting in 2023.
Auto companies have been teaming up with each other as well as with big technology firms in the past few years to try to spread out the enormous costs of developing self-driving and electric vehicles. Ford CEO Jim Hackett expects the large crowd of players to be narrowed down.
“The stakes are high here,” Hackett said at a news conference Friday. “There’s only going to be a few winners who create the leading platforms for the future. We cannot be late, Ford can’t be late, and we have to be great.”
The decision to team up helps Ford and Volkswagen share the steep costs — and risks — of developing technology for driverless vehicles, and gives Argo AI more cash to attract talented engineers. It also will help the automakers pivot from cars that compete on engine performance to those where the unique characteristics of the driver experience will be driven by software.