A senior Ford Executive believes that customers no longer brands separate based on their gasoline and diesel engines, and this can lead to the automaker developing new engines with suppliers or, perhaps, rivals.
According to Automotive news John Lawler, the vice -chairman of Ford Supervision of the strategy, partnerships and alliances, told Bernstein’s Strategic Decisions conference: “I don’t think consumers really think about driving lines as they did 30 years ago”.
He said to the conference: ‘Where [internal combustion engines] Defined what a vehicle was – the horsepower, the relocation, the couple and everything about the vehicle – I think much of it is gone ”.
Hundreds of new cars are available via Carexper now. Get the experts by your side and score a lot. Browse now.
Part of this, Mr Lawler believes, is due to electrification, so that car manufacturers can increase the power and torque, while the CO2 emissions are reduced, with hybrid or plug-in hybrid powertrains.
Mr Lawler states that this can lead to car manufacturers, including Ford, developing engines of the next generation with other companies. This would save money that could help them compete with Chinese car manufacturers.
According to the vice -chairman, Ford “must be competitive against them, not only on the speed of development, software capacity, electrical architectural capacity, but also overall electrification options”.
In 2022, Renault merged his Horse Drivetrain Division with that of Geely’s Aurobay in the hope of attracting customers for his engines and transmissions outside the stable of brands of the two car manufacturers, including Dacia, Volvo, Zeekr and Lotus.
It should be noted that the motor and drive of the motor and drive between rival car manufacturers, although not the norm, is not completely unheard of.
In the early 2000s, Ford developed a V6 turbo diesel in combination with the PSA group, which was used in a wide range of vehicles, including Australian Ford Territory, as well as the Citroen C5, Peugeot 407 and 607, and a whole series of Jaguar and Land Rover models.
Other times manufacturers simply sign a delivery agreement to fill a hole in their powertrain setup, such as when Toyota Europe BMW Motors used for a number of models in the years 2010, including the RAV4.
Small manufacturers often rely exclusively on engines from other car manufacturers, with Lotus, for example with the help of rover, Toyota and Mercedes-Benz mills.
Ford is also no stranger to collaborate with other car manufacturers in other areas. It is currently sharing a number of platforms with the Volkswagen Group, with the Volkswagen Amarok based on the Ford Ranger and Volkswagen Transporter based on the Ford Transit Custom.
The other way, the Ford Transit Connect is based on the Volkswagen Caddy and the European Ford Explorer and Capri EVs are based Volkswagen Mebarchitectuur.
Prior to all this, Ford jointly developed an automatic transmission with 10 gears for use in pick-ups in full size with cross-Town rival GM.
MORE: Everything Ford
