Ford And Renault Reach Strategic Partnership To Develop Electric Vehicles For European Market

Ford, the automotive giant, and (8.54, 0.00, 0.00%)On Tuesday, it was announced that a strategic partnership has been reached to jointly develop small, affordable electric vehicles for the European market and to jointly produce commercial vans in order to reduce costs and address increasingly fierce competition.

As part of the collaboration, the two companies plan to launch two small electric vehicles, with the first one to be manufactured at Renault's plant in northern France and expected to hit European showrooms in 2028. Farley stated that both vehicles will be smaller than any model Ford offers in the US market and will fill a gap in Ford's product line.

The two automakers will also jointly develop vans for the European market under the Renault and Ford brands.

In March, before both parties reached a cooperation agreement, a team from Renault visited Ford's headquarters in Detroit. Farley and Renault's CEO both stated that the two automakers have no plans to merge.

Ford's market share in the European passenger car market has nearly halved, dropping from 6.1% in 2019 to 3.3% in the first ten months of this year, due to the company's exit from the passenger car segment.

Combining Renault's electric vehicle platform with Ford's design will help the American automaker compete with traditional manufacturers like Volkswagen and Chinese brands in the European electric vehicle market.

Ford has already produced two electric vehicles based on the Volkswagen platform in Europe and collaborated with the German automaker on van production. Farley said that the collaboration with Renault will complement Ford's existing partnership with Volkswagen.