Ford Motor Company and Volkswagen AG have announced that they will be teaming up to produce cars and vans in future. Ford which has had a meagre profit in 2018 and Volkswagen after facing criticisms for its emission scenario have now started to visualize what the future needs from them and they have started preparing for it.
Ford and VW will be producing the good old pickup trucks, the much needed electric cars and the futuristic self-driving cars as well. But, there is one hiccup here. These cars as the products of the Ford-VW collaboration could make their debut in the market in 2022 or years after it and not sooner.
The two companies will form a join committee for this collaboration that will oversee operations. A report suggests that Ford has invested around a billion dollars in Argo – an A.I. powered autonomous automobile software developer to strengthen its aspirations for self-driving cars. Ford and VW have also stepped up their games like other manufacturers to produce electric cars which could be well-received in China and India since these two countries are in need of alternatives to the traditional vehicles, and it should be mentioned that these two produce a Himalayan amount of air pollution than any other country, excluding USA off the picture.
Car manufacturers have had a slight amount of hard time in the recent past due to the sudden and steady success of ride sharing services such as Uber and it is a proof that the middle class are choosing to hire than own a car for their needs. It is good to see the two companies come together but question is, will it offer its products in time or before their competitions do? Tesla is globally offering electric cars, Audi and Toyota are already in beta stages in both electric and autonomous cars. The Audi E-Tron is on the way to markets while the alliance between Maruti Suzuki -Toyota to launch e-cars in India is going strong. Ford and VW need to make big announcements before their rivals do.