Ford Market News

[RoadwayR]

I am hearing rumblings that Ford may exit South America soon.  If true I wonder what will become of the Cargo.

[kscarbel2]

9 hours ago, RoadwayR said:

I am hearing rumblings that Ford may exit South America soon.  If true I wonder what will become of the Cargo.

The Cargo would continue in Turkey, but the Brazil-exclusive light GVW models (C816, C1119) would be terminated.

https://www.fordcaminhoes.com.br/cargo/?_ga=1.240094019.1964630396.1468551166

 

[grayhair]

On 3/30/2018 at 8:57 PM, kscarbel2 said:

Ford awards CEO Hackett $16.7 million as he tries tricky turnaround

 

Bloomberg  /  March 29, 2018

 

DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co. awarded $16.7 million in compensation to CEO Jim Hackett in his first year in the role as the former office furniture executive attempts a tricky turnaround aimed at reversing a stock slide, reviving profits and preparing the nearly 115-year-old company for the autonomous age.

Ford used to say "Quality is Job1.  I think quality is not #1 any more.  More like Job 8 or 9...

[Hayseed]

The Cargo is probably a decent Truck.. It's just a shame they hit It so hard with the "ugly Stick"

 

 

 

[kscarbel2]

6 hours ago, grayhair said:

Ford used to say "Quality is Job1.  I think quality is not #1 any more.  More like Job 8 or 9...

All SOP (standard operating procedure) in the modern global automaker.

[kscarbel2]

6 hours ago, Hayseed said:

The Cargo is probably a decent Truck.. It's just a shame they hit It so hard with the "ugly Stick"

I hear you, but I’ve seen worse. I feel the Ford Otosan models produced in Turkey look okay. 

We need to realize what they were trying to accomplish with one low budget cab, for medium and heavy.

Now, the all-new full size H62X cab is going to impress you, a European level truck.

[Red Horse]

4 hours ago, kscarbel2 said:

I hear you, but I’ve seen worse. I feel the Ford Otosan models produced in Turkey look okay. 

We need to realize what they were trying to accomplish with one low budget cab, for medium and heavy.

Now, the all-new full size H62X cab is going to impress you, a European level truck.

Kevin-if it ever sees daylight.  I was hoping that Brazil 3364 (or whatever-the low roof tandem) would make it here-not likely

[Red Horse]

Hard to believe Bill Ford could pick such a winner in Mulally and such a loser in this guy.  If anyone wants to read a good book go to your library and get " American Icon" by Bryce Hoffman.  Its all about Bill ford getting Mulally on board and how Ford was saved.

I copied  one of the last pages that talked about the sad state of affairs Ford was in with all the infighting between the guys at the top and how Bill Ford was trying to stop the bleeding.  ....."Mulally ripped off the bandage, cauterized the wound, and cured the disease.  Only an outsider could do that.  But not just any outsider.  It had to be someone who understood the complexities of global manufacturing, labor relations, and heavily engineered products."    There was one interesting passage in the book when Mulally has one of his first staff meetings and someone raises his hand and says words to the effect while trying to impress him with the complexities of the car industry.."do you know how many thousands of parts there are in a car"? ..Mullaly says  words to the effect.."yeah and there are like 4.7 million parts in a 767".

So what do we have?  Some guy who understood office furniture (where commercial tenants walk away from leases and leave all their old furniture behind which is then resold for pennies on the dollar)-as well as the bullshit associated with universities and alumni associations and the need to have a winning program blah blah.  I think Bill Ford has had too much Silicon Valley wine and it has clouded his judgement.

[Hayseed]

12 hours ago, kscarbel2 said:

Now, the all-new full size H62X cab is going to impress you, a European level truck

I don't doubt that for a Moment..

[kscarbel2]

More signals emerge on Ford's possible purchase of Detroit train station

Detroit Business  /  May 30, 2018

DETROIT -- One of the real estate companies in businessman Matty Moroun's empire quietly transferred ownership of the Michigan Central Station to a mystery company last week as all signs point to Ford Motor Co. purchasing Detroit's long-vacant train station in the Corktown neighborhood.

A warranty deed dated May 22 was recorded May 23 by the Wayne County Register of Deeds, transferring ownership from the Moroun-owned MCS Crown Land Development Co. LLC to New Investment Properties I LLC, property records show..

On the same day, the Moroun company also transferred ownership of the former Detroit Public Schools book depository building next to the depot to a separate entity called New Investment Properties II LLC.

The deed records list the address for both New Investment Properties entities as the New York law firm Phillips Lytle LLP; there's no record to suggest the entity receiving the property is another Moroun-owned real estate holding company.

A spokesman for the law firm did not have immediate comment Wednesday. Phillips Lytle has done legal work for Ford in the past, touting an award from Corporate Counsel magazine for its work on behalf of the company, among others.

Both New Investment Properties I and II were incorporated within a week of each other in late February and early March, according to state corporation records.

Because the identity of owners behind both entities can be shielded under state corporation law, it's unclear whether New Investment Properties I and II are linked to Ford or a related entity. Officials on both sides of the negotiations were tight-lipped about the deed transfers when contacted Wednesday.

Dawn Booker, communications manager for Ford Land Development Co., the automaker's real estate division, declined to comment on the deeds Wednesday morning but instead provided the following statement: "We are very excited about our return to Detroit this year beginning with our electric vehicle and autonomous vehicle teams relocating to the historic former factory in Corktown. We expect to grow our presence in Detroit and will share more details in the future."

The warranty deed was signed by Michael Samhat, president of Crown Enterprises Inc., a real estate development firm that's part of billionaire trucking mogul and train station owner Moroun's business holdings.

Samhat declined comment Wednesday on the deed transfers.

County records also show the Moroun family's Detroit International Bridge Co. issued a quit-claim deed on May 22, transferring the train station property to MCS Crown Land Development LLC, which then issued the warranty deed transferring the property to the mystery company.

A warranty deed signifies that a property has clear title. A quitclaim deed transfers interest from the previous owner to a new owner.

Previous signals

Ford has been in talks for the train station and other nearby properties for months.

Crain's first reported March 19 that the automaker was in negotiations to buy the 505,000-square-foot train station from the Moroun family and redevelop it. That news came three months after Ford revealed it was placing 220 autonomous and electric vehicle workers nearby in a building called The Factory at Corktown. That move began last week as the Team Edison business division moved into the building at Michigan Avenue and Rosa Parks Boulevard.

Edsel B. Ford II, a member of the Ford Motor Co. board of directors and great-grandson of company founder Henry Ford, confirmed on April 30 that the company was considering purchasing the train station.

Ford officials told shareholders at a May 10 virtual meeting that "grow our presence in Detroit and will share more details in the future" in response to a question about how purchasing and renovating the train station will enhance shareholder value in the company's lagging stock.

The Ford Land spokeswoman's response to Crain's on Wednesday mirrored the company's official response to shareholders three weeks ago.

There have been growing signs of Ford's intent on building a campus in Corktown, Detroit's oldest neighborhood west of downtown that gets its name from Ireland's County Cork, where the Ford family has its ancestral roots.

50 properties

But more than the train station, Ford has been in discussions to buy nearly 50 properties, mostly small slivers of land but also other buildings, to create a large campus in the neighborhood. Included in the plans are the old Detroit Public Schools book depository and other buildings near the train station, which has sat unused for three decades.

In recent weeks, workers have been spotted touring the depot and city employees have improved Roosevelt Park, cleaning up overgrown grass and installing mulch immediately in front of the building. Several light poles were also removed.

If a campus comes to fruition, the project would be transformative for the neighborhood and city. It is also expected to set off a slew of ripple effects, including an increase in the price of residential and commercial property in the neighborhood and increased businesses for the neighborhood's restaurant scene.

Real estate and construction experts have said a redevelopment of the train station alone is certain to cost at least $300 million; any redevelopment of the train station would likely seek millions in tax incentives.

A project of its scale could qualify for incentives from the state's "transformational brownfield" law, pushed by Detroit mortgage and real estate mogul Dan Gilbert and economic development officials and adopted in Lansing last year. Last week, Gilbert received $618 million in tax incentives from the state for four projects totaling $2.14 billion.

Samhat has said the family had spent more than $8 million over the past five years abating the building, constructing a freight elevator in the shaft of the depot's original smokestack and installing 1,100 windows.

[kscarbel2]

Ford to mine, monitor vehicle data to enhance commercial fleet performance

Michael Martinez, Automotive News  /  June 7, 2018

DETROIT -- Ford Commercial Solutions, a branch of the automaker's mobility unit, is expanding digital services to help fleet operators better monitor and maintain vehicles.

One is a product that wirelessly beams information on a vehicle's GPS location, mileage, fuel usage, operating conditions, and driver behavior and more to the cloud without the need for third-party plug-in devices. The second service is similar but is specific to law enforcement agencies and lets them collect data about a vehicle's fuel consumption, carbon dioxide emissions, health and driver seat-belt usage.

Ford Motor Co. is working to connect all of its vehicles by 2019 and has partnered with Verizon Connect to do so. The automaker said it has reached service agreements with connected-vehicle companies Geotab and Spireon to give fleet operators a choice of what telematics service they use.

"Our new products are tailored to serve fleets of all types, whether they're run by law enforcement, composed predominantly of Ford vehicles, or are large multi-make fleets that want more insight from their Ford vehicles," Lee Jelenic, CEO of Ford Commercial Solutions, said in a statement Thursday.

The products are among the first offered by Ford Smart Mobility since the automaker reorganized the unit this year. Executives have said mobility services could deliver higher profit margins than Ford's core automotive business, and Ford is working on how to monetize emerging technologies.

Commercial fleets are one of the automaker's largest targets because it dominates the U.S. market with the Transit and Transit Connect vans and the F-series pickup.

The products introduced Thursday are powered by Ford's open cloud-based platform, the Transportation Mobility Cloud, which is built and operated by Autonomic, a Silicon Valley startup Ford acquired this year.

The goal of the Transportation Mobility Cloud is to provide fully established, back-end technology so Ford and other automakers can focus on creating products customers want.

Sundeep Madra, a co-founder of Autonomic and vice president of Ford X, which oversees Autonomic's work, said dealers and fleet operators are increasingly interested in how the cloud can help them.

He said dealers could use the cloud to alert customers of maintenance issues and schedule appointments to a time when the repair shop would have loaner cars available.

"They're really excited about that coming together," Madra said Thursday at the TU-Automotive technology conference in Novi, Mich. "The cloud enables all that to happen."

.

[james j neiweem]

I like the H62X. There is a good video on you tube. Let furniture and real estate people keep to their line of business expertise and let automotive people run  the auto and truck industry. Thank you very much.

[kscarbel2]

Ford says fuel cell venture with Daimler will close

Reuters  /  June 13, 2018

DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co. and Daimler AG are winding down a joint venture formed to develop automotive fuel cell technology, Ford said on Wednesday, as both companies plan to take their respective fuel cell technology development in-house.

The Automotive Fuel Cell Cooperation Corp venture, based in Burnaby, British Columbia, will close this summer, Ford said in response to an inquiry by Reuters.

Despite years of research and investment by major automakers and startups, vehicles powered by fuel cells remain a tiny niche in the global vehicle market.

Honda Motor Co. and General Motors Co. are collaborating on fuel cell development, and Toyota Motor Corp. is ramping up efforts to mass-produce fuel cell stacks. Earlier this week, Ballard Power Systems Inc. extended a contract with Volkswagen AG's Audi unit to work on fuel cell development.

Ford "will take fuel cell stack development in-house, as well as leverage the supply base, and close Automotive Fuel Cell Cooperation Corp. by summer 2018," the company said. "Both companies will continue to explore ways to cooperate on developing fuel cell stack modules."

Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche earlier this year indicated that the German automaker was shifting its focus toward battery-electric vehicles.

The venture employed about 200 people, according to its website.

[kscarbel2]

Ford's train depot purchase has ties to founding family's heritage

Alexa St. John, Automotive News  /  June 14, 2018

DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co.'s purchase of a blighted former train depot in Detroit as the centerpiece of an urban technology campus carries symbolism that likely factored into the automaker's decision to undertake such an ambitious rehabilitation project.

The depot, abandoned 30 years ago, is in a part of Detroit known as Corktown, which has ties to company founder Henry Ford's Irish heritage. Corktown is Detroit's oldest surviving Irish neighborhood, and thus a natural place for Ford Motor to play a role in the city's revitalization.

Ford ancestry

Most of Henry Ford's ancestors left Ireland in the early 1800s. Ford's grandfather, John Ford, and father, William Ford, were among the 1 million U.S. immigrants from Cork, Ireland, in 1847. Henry Ford, born in 1863 in what is now Dearborn, Mich., grew up with a curiosity for machines amid Detroit's industrial boom.

Henry Ford's heritage influenced even his early automobile business decisions. He selected Cork as the site for the first purpose-built Ford factory outside the U.S. in 1917.

Much of the Cork factory was dedicated to Ford tractor production. The last Model T ever built, Ford's most iconic contribution to the auto industry, came from the Cork factory's production line in the 1920s, along with the Model A, Model BF, Model Y, Prefect, Anglia, Escort, Cortina and Sierra.

Though the company name has since officially changed from Henry Ford & Son, it still uses that moniker in Ireland — the only place in the world it does so.

Ford also has the biggest network of dealers of any automotive manufacturer in Ireland, the company said in a statement, with 52 dealerships across the country. Bill Ford, Ford Motor executive chairman and a great-grandson of Henry Ford, celebrated the company's centennial in Ireland last year.

"Ford has deep roots in Cork, not only through my family's historical connection, but also through the impact that the Ford factory has had as an engine for prosperity for the area over many decades," Bill Ford said in a statement during the family's travels to Ireland last April.

Neighborhood

Bill Ford spoke nostalgically of that connection last year, when Ford Motor revealed plans to put about 200 employees into a former hosiery factory in Corktown that it bought and renovated.

More than 30 years after Ford closed its Cork factory in 1984, the company is re-emphasizing its cultural heritage, but this time in Detroit.

"Henry Ford is synonymous with Detroit," former Detroit mayor Roman Gribbs once said.

The train depot Ford bought, known as Michigan Central Station, opened in 1914, 11 years after Henry Ford started his automobile company. Both entities thrived in parallel for much of the 20th century, though Ford's success in making cars more accessible to people contributed to the eventual decline of rail travel and the station's closure.

The train station isn't the only Corktown property in which Ford has expressed interest. It has promised to reveal its plans for the area in more detail next week. The family that had owned the depot since 1995 said on Monday that it began having discussions with Ford in October.

Ford, whose headquarters in Dearborn are seven miles west of the depot, has many ties to Detroit that go far beyond Corktown. Henry Ford's Piquette Avenue Plant, known as the birthplace of the Model T, is on the city's east side. Detroit's Renaissance Center, a series of 1970s office towers fronting the Detroit River that now house General Motors' headquarters, was conceived by Henry Ford's grandson, Henry Ford II, and financed largely by Ford Motor.

[kscarbel2]

Ford plots future in a relic of Detroit's past

Michael Martinez, Automotive News  /  June 17, 2018

DETROIT — Bill Ford was a child the first time he stepped through a bronze door into the marble-floored concourse of Michigan Central Station. The Fords were catching a train to California, and Bill was awestruck by the sea of travelers passing under the cavernous lobby's high arches and ornate chandeliers.

"I remember walking in, just taking a look and going, "Wow," he said.

Decades later, as the towering depot sat derelict and crumbling, it evoked a much different emotion.

"I've seen Detroit at its best and at its worst," Ford, 61, said, "and one thing I hated was when the national media was writing about the decay of Detroit, the poster child for that was always the train station. That always really bothered me, because I remembered as a young boy when it was amazing. They kept using that as a metaphor for what happened in Detroit."

Now, he's making Michigan Central a metaphor for what his company, and the city where his great-grandfather started it, could become. The automaker last week confirmed its purchase of the 1913 depot, which has marred Detroit's skyline since even before the first Ford Explorer arrived almost 30 years ago.

Ford Motor plans to use the 18-story building to anchor a one-of-a-kind research and engineering campus in Detroit, where it envisions having thousands of workers developing autonomous and electric vehicles. It's paying for the project using money earmarked to overhaul its offices, and with the help of substantial tax incentives. Renovating the depot is estimated to take about four years.

Ford plans to put around 2,500 employees into the depot and surrounding properties — it's amassing space for up to 5,000 people — and envisions using autonomous shuttles to ferry workers between the campus in Detroit's Corktown neighborhood and nearby cities such as Dearborn, the home of Ford's headquarters.

"We're in a war for talent," Bill Ford said in an interview with Automotive News and affiliate Crain's Detroit Business. "And there will be no place in the country that anybody will be able to work that's a place like that. It's a very important branding thing for Ford. It's also important in terms of our intent. We wouldn't have done it if the cost didn't make sense."

Community destination

Ford Motor hopes the train station will be more attractive to in-demand talent than the cookie-cutter campuses of Silicon Valley or isolated suburban office parks. The company intends to rehabilitate the decrepit concourse into a community gathering spot that's open to the public — akin to San Francisco's Ferry Building, complete with restaurants and retail. Ford workers could be joined by supplier partners or software startups in the office space. And the company said it's considering residential space, potentially putting condos on the top floors.

"I want this to be, and believe it will be, a really fun destination for people — both Detroiters and people coming in from outside of Detroit," Ford said. "It would be great if this was one of their first stops. It would be a great place to meet friends and family and then go from there."

In addition to the train station, Ford bought a nearby low-rise building and plans to acquire other properties to create a campus totaling roughly 1.2 million square feet. Of that, Ford said three-quarters will be split equally among Ford and its partners, with the rest a mix of retail and residential space.

Crain's Detroit Business has reported Ford is working to buy nearly 50 total properties in Corktown, many of which are empty lots and abandoned buildings.

Bill Ford declined to divulge a price for the train station or how much it will cost to repair. (Its previous owner spent $8 million to replace its 1,100 broken windows and put in a freight elevator.) He said the project is being absorbed by an undisclosed amount of money the automaker set aside in 2016 to transform its Dearborn campus. Ford said the Dearborn renovation, which outside experts have estimated to cost $1.2 billion, will continue and the company's headquarters will remain in Dearborn, seven miles west.

"We're spending no extra money than we already had in our forward budget," he said.

Business case

Some, including Ford shareholders, have questioned the business case for such a costly project while CEO Jim Hackett orders billions of dollars in cuts to improve the company's "operational fitness." Bill Ford said he thinks the effort will be well worth it.

"We are again reinventing the future of transportation, just as we did 115 years ago," he said at his office in the automaker's 1950s-era headquarters known as the Glass House. "And that, to me, is going to be the power of this building. It won't just be a stand-alone, very beautiful building. It will very much be part of the fabric of the new transportation model. And our future at Ford will be largely invented there."

'What if?'

Bill Ford first thought of buying the train station in 2017 as he was driving scouting out the Factory — a newly renovated brick building near the depot that now houses about 200 workers on Ford's electrified and autonomous vehicle teams.

"I'd always had this vision that we would build the future of Ford Motor Co., particularly as it pertained to autonomy, in a city setting — because that's where these vehicles will be deployed and that's where we need to really try them out," he said. "And so, I would drive by the train station and I started asking myself: 'What if? Is this fantasy?' "

It wasn't. Negotiations between Ford's real-estate arm and the depot's owner began in October and went smoothly, he said.

The train station marks Bill Ford's third high-profile real-estate project in the region, following extensive renovations of Ford's historic Rouge complex and construction of Ford Field, a football stadium that brought the Detroit Lions back downtown after 27 years in suburban Pontiac.

"This dwarfs them all, in my opinion, because of what it means for the future," Bill Ford said. "The future of mobility should be created in Detroit — and I believe it will be."

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[RoadwayR]

A good real estate deal, but nothing more.  

[Hayseed]

3 hours ago, kscarbel2 said:

. It's paying for the project using money earmarked to overhaul its offices, and with the help of substantial tax incentives.

Says it All  I  reckon..

[kscarbel2]

Seriously, Detroit is an extremely dangerous city. It's speaks volumes about the state of the United States that such a dangerous place can exist within it.

[Maxidyne]

Crime has dropped some in Detroit but there's still too much crime there. And I suspect a lot of that drop in crime is simply due to there not being a whole lot left in Detroit to steal and less people to kill. Financially the city is probably in worse shape before the bankruptcy thanks to the selling off of a lot of maintenance equipment needed to maintain the city's infrastructure. The tax revenue from Ford will help Detroit, but will probably just set off a tax giveaway battle between Detroit and Dearborn that will hurt both cities.

[kscarbel2]

Hackett vows closer ties with Ford dealers

Michael Martinez, Automotive News  /  June 18, 2018

Ford Motor Co. CEO Jim Hackett has promised to be more visible and accessible to dealers after spending much of his first year consumed with getting the automaker in better shape. He made the comments to about 130 of Ford's top U.S. dealers during a meeting in Orlando that largely focused on the company's plan to remove all sedans from its lineup — a decision that caught many of them off guard when it was revealed in April.

Hackett said he wished he could have met with more dealers sooner and explained that his time since being named CEO in May 2017 was focused on developing a plan to improve Ford's operational fitness, according to people who were in the room. He promised to attend an October dealer gathering in Las Vegas and in recent weeks has met with dealers in Houston, California and other areas of the country.

The Orlando meeting, which dealers and company officials say was positive, included significant discussion about the plan to eliminate sedans in favor of more lucrative utility vehicles. Ford has said it's aiming for the industry's freshest lineup by 2020, with pickups, vans and utilities representing roughly 90 percent of its volume. The only cars remaining are the Mustang and upcoming Focus Active wagon.

Ford showed dealers the new products that will replace those sedans. They saw video renderings of a small off-road SUV as well as a battery electric crossover tentatively called the Mach 1, as well as physical prototypes of the next-generation Escape, Explorer, Lincoln Corsair and a Continental with suicide doors, according to those in the room.

"When you have a decision this big, there's going to be some concern," Mark LaNeve, Ford's vice president of U.S. marketing, sales and service, told Automotive News. "We understand that, but we're working real hard and the vast, vast majority of dealers are solidly behind what we're doing."

How Ford announced the sedan decision — as part of its first-quarter earnings call with no prior input from its dealer council — was a point of contention for some. Ford kept dealers in the dark, LaNeve said, because it enters a quiet period before its earnings when it doesn't discuss decisions that could impact the stock price.

Some asked Ford to consider keeping the Fusion name, an idea they said the company seemed receptive to, potentially as a crossover-styled vehicle after 2021. Still others asked for assurances that they wouldn't cede entry-level vehicle sales to rival brands.

"Any brand that you've spent hundreds of millions of development, you've got to keep it," said Rhett Ricart, CEO of Ricart Automotive Group in Groveport, Ohio, and a Ford dealer council member. "It's a pretty damn great car. Maybe that's what's so frustrating. But they might surprise you — have a Fusion that's more competitive or is maybe a different type of layout."

Since the April 25 sedan announcement, Ford has worked to address concerns. LaNeve said he hosted roughly 20 conference calls on April 26 with dealers from all of Ford's U.S. regions. Jim Farley, Ford's vice president of global markets, gave media interviews explaining Ford intended to reinvent sedans with a different silhouette, not kill them.

The Orlando meeting in late May was an annual gathering of high-volume and award-winning retailers known as One Ford Elite. Hackett, Farley and LaNeve were joined by Joe Hinrichs, Ford's vice president of global operations, and Lincoln President Joy Falotico.

Ricart said Hackett spoke "deeply and emotionally" and was right to focus on larger corporate issues before turning his attention to Ford's retail network. Ricart said there are always opportunities to communicate better but noted that it's an area where Ford traditionally receives leading scores on an annual survey by the National Automobile Dealers Association.

[kscarbel2]

VW, Ford eye alliance to develop 'potential products across a number of areas'

Automotive News/Reuters/Bloomberg  /  June 19, 2018

DETROIT/FRANKFURT -- Volkswagen and Ford are exploring a development and production alliance for commercial vehicles, including vans, and possibly other projects that could strengthen both companies' competitiveness. 

Ford, in a statement, said the two automakers have signed a memorandum of understanding allowing them to explore "potential products across a number of areas -- including developing a range of commercial vehicles together to better serve the evolving needs of customers."

The statement said the potential alliance "would not involve equity arrangements, including cross ownership stakes."

Some preliminary talks have already been held, one source told Reuters earlier on Tuesday. Word of the preliminary talks leaked out of Germany earlier in the day. 

“Ford is committed to improving our fitness as a business and leveraging adaptive business models – which include working with partners to improve our effectiveness and efficiency,” Jim Farley, Ford’s president of Global Markets, said in the statement. “This potential alliance with the Volkswagen Group is another example of how we can become more fit as a business, while creating a winning global product portfolio and extending our capabilities." 

Ford is a leader in medium-duty trucks in the United States, and its F-series pickup has been the best-selling U.S. vehicle for decades. The Ford Transit Connect small van and Ford Transit large van also dominate the U.S. market for commercial vans.

VW, which owns the MAN and Scania truck brands in Europe, earlier this year formed a commercial vehicle alliance with Japanese truckmaker Hino Motors Ltd., a Toyota affiliate. VW and Hino said they would consider cooperating in areas such as diesel and gasoline-electric hybrid engines, connectivity and self-driving technologies.

VW also has an alliance with Navistar International Corp. and has said it is open to buying a majority stake in the U.S. truckmaker.

Thomas Sedran, head of strategy at Volkswagen AG, said in the statement: “Markets and customer demand are changing at an incredible speed. Both companies have strong and complementary positions in different commercial vehicle segments already. To adapt to the challenging environment, it is of utmost importance to gain flexibility through alliances. This is a core element of our Volkswagen Group Strategy 2025. The potential industrial cooperation with Ford is seen as an opportunity to improve competitiveness of both companies globally.”

Automakers across the globe are exploring ways to share expenses for developing light commercial vehicles, including electrified models, as cities from Paris to London to Shanghai push for models that will help them improve air quality. The tightening restrictions come at the same time that demand is rising for delivery of goods rising due to increasing popularity of online shopping.

VW had cooperated for years with Daimler AG to produce vans, but the German peer ended the joint project several years ago.

Eckhard Scholz, the head of VW’s light-commercial vehicle division, told Bloomberg News in October that the company was exploring ways to work together with other manufacturers. Evolving emissions rules were one factor prompting the talks, he said then.

[kscarbel2]

The Ford family is getting in bed with the Nazis.....again. Or, is the question, did Ford ever get out?

[Dirtymilkman]

Ford is gonna need VW to import cars to the USA to rebadge as Ford's

[Maxidyne]

Sounds like the alliance has begun already- Ford top management must be sharing their drugs with VW's top management! Seriously, what does Ford bring to the party? A VW badged F150 ain't worth the bother, and Ford has nothing competitive with a conventional cab above the F550 or so. So much for the "One Ford" strategy...

[kscarbel2]

'We're making a big bet on our future,' Ford says of train station, Corktown investment

Automotive News  /  June 19, 2018

DETROIT -- In celebrating their purchase of Detroit's long-vacant train depot, Ford Motor Co. leaders portrayed the automaker's planned rehabilitation of Michigan Central Station as a pioneering facility akin to the Highland Park and Rouge plants Henry Ford built that revolutionized automobile production and American industry.

"Ford's investment in Corktown is anything but symbolic," company Executive Chairman Bill Ford told a crowd of 4,500 people who gathered outside the monolithic train station in the neighborhood, where Ford Motor plans to plant up to 5,000 auto tech workers in the coming years.

"We're making a big bet on our future," the great-grandson of Henry Ford added. "What Highland Park, the Rouge and Willow Run were to the American economy in the 20th century, we hope Corktown will be to the American economy in the 21st century. And I know that's a big claim."

Ford plans to embed employees and suppliers developing autonomous self-driving vehicles and new mobility technology to address urban gridlock, using the city that put the world on wheels to invent new ways of getting around, Bill Ford said.

"Eventually we'll bring all of our mobility teams to this neighborhood," Ford said.

The 500,000-square-foot train station and its 13-story tower hovering over the west end of Detroit's oldest neighborhood will serve "as a knowledge cathedral" where the company will develop a transportation mobility cloud to "help us untangle congestion," Ford CEO Jim Hackett said.

"What the Rouge was in the Industrial Age, Corktown will be for Ford in the Information Age," Hackett said. "Think of this as a new kind of Rouge (plant) -- a parallel pathway to build out our business alongside the future of Dearborn."

For Ford Motor's formal announcement that it has purchased the train station from the Moroun family, the automaker put on a music festival-like show, complete with a trailer of a History Channel documentary on Detroit's comeback shown on big screens, a poem about the depot read by U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith and a special performance by rapper Big Sean, a native of Detroit's west side.

"For as long as I can remember, this train station had been abandoned," said the rapper, Sean Michael Leonard Anderson, who was born in 1988, the year the train station was shuttered.

The company is planning an open house Friday-Sunday, allowing the general public inside the train station for a rare tour of the 110,000-square-foot main concourse. The tour includes a Detroit history display created by the Detroit Historical Society.

"Ford's going to be a great steward of this building," said Joe Klecha, chief technology officer for Digerati, a downtown Detroit small software development company based in the Guardian Building. "It sounds like they'll have a very honest engagement with the community."

Bill Ford said the company would seek community input on how to transform the train station and Corktown. Both Ford and Hackett said they don't want the automaker's arrival to the neighborhood to be seen as a corporate "takeover."

Said Ford: "We want your help to make this vision a reality -- a signal to the world that Detroit is open for business for good."

.