Ford Motor is nearing a choice to license Volkswagen’s electric-car know-how for a second mannequin to be offered by Ford in Europe, individuals conversant in the matter mentioned, a transfer that may deepen ties between two of the world’s largest automakers.

Talks relating to Ford utilizing VW’s underpinnings — often known as MEB — for an additional electrical automobile might result in an settlement within the coming weeks, mentioned the individuals, who requested to not be recognized as a result of the negotiations are non-public. Ford has already mentioned it plans to produce a car using MEB in Cologne, Germany, from 2023.

“As we have now mentioned beforehand, there may be the potential for a second all-electric automobile based mostly on the MEB platform to be constructed at Cologne, and that’s nonetheless into account,” Ford of Europe mentioned in an emailed assertion. VW declined to remark.

Ford has been accelerating EV plans beneath CEO Jim Farley, one of many most important architects of the alliance the 2 corporations fashioned in 2018. Their cooperation initially targeted on business vans and was expanded a 12 months later to incorporate self-driving know-how and EVs.

On Tuesday, Ford said it will build a $185 million battery analysis lab in Michigan with the purpose of producing its personal batteries and cells for EVs.

“This solely begins to trace at our electric-vehicle ambitions,” Farley mentioned throughout an earnings name Wednesday. “There may be a lot extra to come back.”

Sharing MEB permits VW to spice up economies of scale for the platform utilized by fashions together with the ID4 compact electrical crossover. In return, Ford saves time and improvement expense. UBS Group analysts not too long ago did a teardown evaluation of VW’s ID3 and praised MEB for stacking up effectively towards Tesla on prices and different key features.

Ford has launched little element concerning the EV it is going to construct in Cologne two years from now. It introduced earlier this week it is going to make investments $300 million to construct a brand new mild business automobile at its Craiova manufacturing unit in Romania, together with an all-electric model due in 2024. This automobile gained’t share VW’s EV know-how.