Ford and Renault EV deal: Fiesta and other new EVs will ‘feel like Fords’
Renault boss Provost confirms new Ford supermini EV will feel like a Ford, not a rebodied R5
New revelations on Ford’s Renault-based supermini have been unearthed, with the French company’s boss confirming the upcoming Ford models won’t just be rebadged Renaults. The aim is to produce cars for each brand that are fundamentally distinct in how they look, feel and drive.
Renault CEO François Provost explained to Auto Express: “these will be Ford’s cars. They will sort the styling, they will sort the features. We are working with them in the development because we are capable of supplying our platforms and parts, and bring value for Ford in our production and development capability.”
This confirms our previous reporting that Ford’s jointly-developed models will take a big step away from the Renaults on which they are based, giving them a distinct look and feel. This is in contrast to cars like the Nissan Micra, which is closely based on the Renault 5 in its current form but has been under some scrutiny for looking and feeling too similar.
Ford will take a different route. Renault will be responsible for the hardware and development expertise, but will allow Ford’s European design and development team to use those hard points as a basis to help the future Ford Fiesta ‘feel’ like a Fiesta.
Provost continued: “Ford will also handle all the sales and marketing – these cars are Fords, we will just provide our expertise and technologies.”
However, Renault’s newly established Chinese-based R&D assets, which have been influential in speeding up the development period of the new Twingo and will be brought to bear on all future models, did raise one new issue. We asked; is using these facilities in China for the development of a car from an American company any cause for concern? Provost replied: “There is no connection to our Chinese operations, our technical partnership with Ford is from our European core, so there are no conflicts.”
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