{
  "id": 2130923,
  "title": "Autobauer: Kooperation mit Ford wird für Volkswagen zum Bulli-Bumerang",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/20/autobauer-kooperation-mit-ford-wird-fur-volkswagen-zum-bulli-bumerang-2130923",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-08-20T12:22:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Handelsblatt",
    "slug": "handelsblatt",
    "url": "https://www.handelsblatt.com/unternehmen/industrie/volkswagen-kooperation-mit-ford-wird-fuer-autobauer-zum-bulli-bumerang/100244960.html"
  },
  "original_language": "de",
  "account": "Volkswagen's boss Oliver Blume will be visiting factories across the Group next week to explain how the situation at domestic plants will develop. One particularly tricky case is Hannover, where a decision made by Blume's predecessor could now be coming back to bite the company. In 2019, Herbert Diess, then CEO of Volkswagen, struck a deal with Ford to cooperate in building lightweight commercial vehicles. This deal has now become a significant problem for the 12,000 employees at the Hannover plant. In an internal presentation by the board, the Hannover manufacturing plant is described as particularly expensive, along with Emden, Zwickau, and the Audi site in Neckarsulm. According to sources within the group, factory costs at Hannover sometimes reached five-figure Euro per vehicle, with the new benchmark for Europe aiming at 3,000 Euro. The reason for the problem at the Hannover plant is its lack of scale. In 2017, the plant produced over 200,000 commercial vehicles, but by 2025, that number had dropped to around 113,500. Chief Oliver Blume is quick to stress that the current crisis is \"not a Volkswagen crisis, it's an industrial crisis.\" Indeed, global events such as competition in China, tariffs in the US, weak demand for electric cars, and geopolitical tensions are affecting the industry as a whole. However, a significant portion of the issue lies within Volkswagen itself. The story goes back to July 2019, when Diess met with Ford's CEO Jim Hackett in a modest conference room in Manhattan. The two powerful automakers agreed to several far-reaching cooperations, including the alliance between VW and Ford on autonomous driving, which both sides ended in 2023 with high costs. The deal on lightweight commercial vehicles, which has shaped the Hannover plant for decades, is still in place. Diess and Hackett decided that their two auto companies would share the development of lightweight commercial vehicles. Volkswagen took responsibility for the Caddy and corresponding Ford sister models, while Ford developed the successor to the VW Transporter T6.1 based on the Transit Custom. However, the deal had a significant downside for Hannover, the plant's main volume generator was gone. The current generation of the VW Transporter, the T7, is no longer built in Hannover, but at Ford in Turkey. Technically, the current Bulli is closely related to the Transit Custom and its sister model Tourneo Custom, with platform, engines, and main drivetrain technologies coming from Ford. Without the classic Transporter, Hannover now primarily produces the electric ID.Buzz and higher-priced Bulli variants Multivan and California, both based on VW technology. Diess thought this would be manageable, as the plant was already being shifted towards electric mobility, with a large future project called \"Landjet\" for an electric luxury model by Audi, which later included variants for other group brands. However, the project kept being postponed and eventually canceled. Today, even the ID.Buzz does not meet the sales volumes VW once predicted. In the US, orders are still below expectations, with only over 60,000 electric mini buses produced in Hannover in 2025, considered significantly fewer than planned. Even in 2022, more than 100,000 ID.Buzz were expected. This leaves Hannover in a fix: the plant is designed for much higher volumes, but is producing significantly less. \"We're missing a product,\" says a senior decision-maker at the plant. The Hannover plant also received critical feedback on the cooperation with Ford. \"I consider it unfortunate what has happened,\" says a high-ranking decision-maker. The current Transporter is now seen as a Ford model, not a VW, and benefits Ford more. Sales statistics support this, with Volkswagen selling over 200,000 Transporters in 2023, compared to Ford's nearly 200,000. This reversal in the market share has been significant, with Ford selling nearly 65% more in 2025. In the first half of 2026, VW's situation is only slightly better, with Ford still leading by roughly 98,000 vehicles.",
  "summary": "Mit Ford wollte VW Milliarden sparen und Hannover zugleich in die elektrische Zukunft führen. Doch die Rechnung ging nicht auf. Nun kämpft das traditionsreiche Bulli-Werk um seine Zukunft.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "Handelsblatt",
        "title": "Autobauer: Kooperation mit Ford wird für Volkswagen zum Bulli-Bumerang",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/19/autobauer-kooperation-mit-ford-wird-fur-volkswagen-zum-bulli-bumerang",
        "published": "2026-08-19T05:07:00.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}