The landmark car-making tie-up between Ford and Volkswagen will begin to bear fruit in 2023, when the US manufacturer kick-starts its bold European EV offensive with a locally produced and regionally focused crossover to sit beneath the Mustang Mach-E.
Arriving in line with the Blue Oval’s ambition to fully electrify its European range by 2030, the crossover will be the first EV built at Ford’s $1 billion (£708m) Electrification Centre in Cologne, Germany. It is set to be produced initially alongside the Fiesta supermini, which is scheduled to end its current life cycle in 2024 or 2025.
The new crossover will be the first Ford to use the Volkswagen Group’s MEB EV platform, as part of a long-term strategic partnership between the two firms that will also result in Ford building commercial vehicles for the German brand.
More specifically, the new Ford will share the bulk of its underpinnings with Volkswagen’s ID 4 crossover, rather than its shorter ID 3 hatchback, which paves the way for a line-up comprising a wide variety of battery capacities, power outputs and driveline layouts.
The Ford crossover, which is set for a reveal in the first half of 2022 before its 2023 market introduction, will adopt a similar low-slung, two-box silhouette to its Zwickau-built sibling. As such, it is tipped to make a significant departure in its design from the flagship Mach-E, with straighter and more prominent body creases among its defining features.
Ford of Europe boss Stuart Rowley revealed recently that he will leverage Ford’s American heritage as a point of differentiation from rival firms, which is likely to influence the styling of the new EV.
“Ford is the only American brand in Europe now and that’s a unique position that we can build on. A lot of people are attracted to some of those characteristics and only Ford can bring products like that to the market,” he said, hinting that core US-market models like the new Bronco and Explorer SUVs could be used as the basis for European models, in much the same way as the Mach-E draws on elements of the Mustang.
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WHAT, SERIOUSLY - Due to the cultural use of ST and RS they will not use those monikers on an EV - But they have no issues with using the worlds best perfor,ance brand name MUSTANG MACH on a VW heap of POO.... is that not double standards, the Mustang name is far more recogognised that any RS or ST model.
It's always been a bit of a frustration with Ford, that they have so many nice looking offerings in the US, yet we get the Gormless fish looking Puma, or the third world Indian Ecosport. Whilst the Mustang has gone down very well, the only other US model they bought over was the Edge, which I would argue was their worst offering really, as it had no real US styling, just looked like a giant hatchback, and yet tried to appeal as a premium offering.
Although they talk about how the Explorer styling could go down well, yet bought it to the rest of Europe and not the UK... So go figure. The new Bronco sport I imagine again would have gone down great, yet again they have not bought it over.
Although whilst these are only renderings, it would be great if it looked anything like that. Looks much better than the ID4.
I thought it was just General Motors who did not know how to sell cars in Europe. It would appear that Ford may be falling in to the same trap if they intend to use their American heritage for the direction of their future styling!