Sam Krahn 
It’s official folks: Ford and Volkswagen have just signed an agreement that will result in a joint-development of many upcoming vehicles, including the next generation Ford Ranger. We first heard about this last year, when Ford and VW announced they’d work together on vehicle development that caters to each of their strengths. The next Ford Ranger is one of the more exciting vehicles to come out of the deal, and Ford announced it’ll be coming in 2022.
Specifically, this agreement will see Ford doing most of the development of the pickup platform. In other markets, VW sells a mid-size pickup called the Amarok. The truck currently sits on a VW designed platform, but pickups are certainly not a strength for the German auto giant. That’s why Ford, who knows a thing or two about trucks, will be in charge of the main development. The next-gen Volkswagen Amarok will simply get different VW sheet metal and interior styling on top of the Ford Ranger platform, significantly lowering development costs.
But Volkswagen, on the other hand, is a few steps ahead of Ford in the electric vehicle market. Right now, they are in the midst of launching an onslaught of new EVs under the “ID” nameplate. Ford will do just what VW is doing with the truck, and use their MEB electric architecture to sell an EV. As of now, Ford says it’ll be for Europe only.
In addition, Ford and VW are teaming up for commercial vans. Ford will handle development of a 1-ton van (likely based on the current or next-gen Transit), while VW will be in charge of a light duty van based on the Europe-only Caddy. Finally, both brands will work together to develop autonomous vehicle software.
This partnership is not outlined as a merger, rather it’s strictly formulated in an effort to lower vehicle development costs and play off the strengths of each automaker. As of now, we don’t know too much else about the next-gen 2022 Ford Ranger, other than a very strong possibility of a standard hybrid drivetrain for the gas model.
