Is this Volkswagen twin Ford Australia's next electric car?

Ford executives have dropped a couple of small teasers for an electric car the brand is developing using Volkswagen’s MEB platform.

In a post on LinkedIn, Ford of Europe’s marketing director, Peter Zillig, invoked the company’s recent shift to a marketing focus that draws upon the brand’s roots in the US, headlined with a shadowy image (above) which appears to feature one of several models teased earlier this year.

The model, which lines up with Ford’s earlier teaser, appears to be the ‘medium-sized crossover’ yet to be named.

“Starting in 2023, Ford will begin production of an all-new electric passenger vehicle, a medium-sized crossover, built in Cologne with a second electric vehicle added to the Cologne production line-up in 2024,” the company said upon its initial announcement.

Further confirmation that this model is on track comes from a tweet by Ford Europe general manager of electric car department ‘Ford Model e’ Martin Sander, in which he is pictured at the Ford Design Centre in Europe lifting the cover up from a hidden model, clearly the medium-sized crossover, by just a corner.

The partnership between Ford and Volkswagen, which resulted in the new Volkswagen Amarok ute based on the T6.2 Ford Ranger, will continue to bear new models for Ford based on the MEB platform, including a sports crossover which “will be built at the Ford Cologne Electrification Centre [and] means that electric vehicle production at the facility will increase to 1.2 million vehicles over a six-year timeframe”.

The collaboration will also result in a new, fully electric version of Ford’s most popular model in Europe, the Puma crossover small SUV.

The chair of Ford or Europe, Stuart Rowley, said earlier this year the collaboration with VW allows the brand to still build vehicles with a ‘Ford feeling’ but still fast track the development of electrification within the brand’s line-up.

“Our strategic alliance with Volkswagen is an important element of Ford’s commitment to offer an all-electric range of vehicles that are uniquely Ford and designed to meet the mobility needs of a modern Europe that is leading the fight against climate change.”

It remains to be seen if the mid-size crossover will become one of the new electric vehicles that Ford Australia promised to release locally in the coming years. Stay tuned.