Ford Gives A Peek At VW MEB-Based EV Coming To Europe In 2023

Ford is going to completely revamp its traditional lineup of models in Europe in the next few years. It will discontinue longstanding nameplates like Fiesta (by 2023) and Focus (by 2025) and all will be replaced by electric vehicles, probably taller, higher-riding crossovers like the one the manufacturer recently teased.

The new electric crossover which was teased by Ford Model E Europe division general manager Martin Sander, who posed next to the upcoming crossover, which was hidden under a cover, lifting one corner to show the front corner of the vehicle. In his post on Twitter, Sander says

Great to see so many of our media friends today in our @Ford in Europe Design Center. Can’t wait for 2023 to arrive, when we will pull the cover of our first electric passenger vehicle coming from #Cologne.

With this he is also confirming that even though this vehicle will actually be built on the Volkswagen MEB platform, it will actually be built in one of its own factories, namely the Cologne plant. This factory is being upgraded and retooled in order to be able to produce EVs, and is expected to produce not just one MEB-based model, but two, with the second electric vehicle entering production in 2024.

And since the factory currently builds the relatively simple Fiesta hatchback, the process of turning it into a hub of EV manufacturing will require massive investments on Ford’s side. The Blue Oval said it will need to inject around $2-billion into Cologne in order for it to produce EVs, and it plans to finalize this investment by 2026.

Regarding the vehicle teased in the photo, there’s not much to say yet. We can see that it’s about the same size as a VW ID.4, but we expect it to look completely different, with a more traditional SUV design that won’t appear as futuristic as the Volkswagen product. Skoda has also built its own crossover of the same size on the platform, the Enyaq, and it too is quite traditional in its design, so the Ford model will actually be more similar to that than the VW.

The other model that Ford wants to build in Cologne (the one coming in 2024) is expected to be a sportier version of the model entering production next year. It has been speculated that it will be Ford’s equivalent to the Volkswagen ID.5, although we’ve yet to be able to confirm this information as the model hasn’t even been teased yet (although it does appear in a general teaser showing several upcoming Ford EVs where it’s called a “sport crossover”).