Hyperdrive

VW-Ford Alliance Expansion Shows Carmaker Partnerships Are Here to Stay

  • Rise of EVs, autonomy, mobility services spurring cooperation
  • Virtually every top carmaker partnering with one of its foes
Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg
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A long history of failed automotive mergers and tie-ups -- from Daimler-Chrysler, to GM-Fiat and BMW-Rover -- used to be reason to doubt that combinations or partnerships between big carmakers were a good idea.

But as the world’s biggest manufacturers anticipate an age of increasingly electric, autonomous and shared vehicles, they’re increasingly becoming bedfellows.