VW, Ford confirm talks on possible commercial vehicle tie-up

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Volkswagen AG and Ford Motor Co are talking about jointly developing and building a range of commercial vehicles including vans, the companies confirmed on Tuesday. A Reuters story earlier on Tuesday said VW and Ford were discussing joint production of vans. In a joint statement late Tuesday, VW and Ford said they were considering a strategic alliance and "investigating several joint projects," including development of a range of commercial vehicles for global markets. The companies said the alliance did not involve an equity swap or cross-ownership stakes. The brief statement provided few additional details, other than to say VW and Ford were "exploring potential projects across a number of areas," including commercial vehicles. Ford is a leader in medium-duty trucks in the United States, and its F-series pickup has been the best-selling U.S. vehicle for decades. VW, which owns the MAN and Scania truck brands in Europe, earlier this year formed a commercial vehicle alliance with Japanese truckmaker Hino Motors Ltd <7205.T>, a Toyota affiliate. VW and Hino said they would consider cooperating in areas such as diesel and gasoline-electric hybrid engines, connectivity and self-driving technologies. VW also has an alliance with Navistar International Corp and has said it is open to buying a majority stake in the U.S. truckmaker. (Reporting by Jan Schwartz; Additional reporting by Joe White and Paul Lienert in Detroit; Writing by Edward Taylor; Editing by Adrian Croft and Cynthia Osterman)