Ford (F) Partners With Deutsche Post To Manufacture E-Van

Ford Motor Company’s (NYSE:F) subsidiary, Ford-Werke GmbH is entering into a partnership with StreetScooter GmbH to manufacture battery-electric delivery vehicles. The latter is a subsidiary of Deutsche Post (DE:DPWGn) and is an electric vehicle manufacturer located in Aachen, Germany.

Incidentally, Deutsche Post is engaged in designing and manufacturing of emission-free StreetScooter. Now both partners are jointly working on a larger vehicle type.

The electric delivery van’s technical chassis will be provided by Ford Transit. Its special body construction will be based on specifications provided by Deutsche Post and DHL Paket. It will also be equipped with a battery-electric train.

The production is scheduled to start from Jul 2017. At least, 2,500 vehicles will support this urban delivery traffic of Deutsche Post DHL Group by 2018-end. The project might become Europe’s largest manufacturer of battery-electric medium-duty delivery vehicles in Europe.

Both Deutsche Post DHL Group and Ford have a common objective to build emission-free future vehicles and create new traffic solutions.

Ford is working toward the development of mobility solutions for unique transportation challenges faced by various major global cities.

To promote usage of electric vehicles for long distance travel, Ford is teaming up with BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen (DE:VOWG_p) (including Audi and Porsche) to set up an electric charging network in Europe, based on Combined Charging System standard technology.

Construction of the charging stations will commence in 2017 with an initial goal of 400 locations. Within 2020, the companies aim to build up a network of over thousand charging points. This move is aimed to facilitate adoption of electric vehicles in Europe.

Price Performance

Ford has underperformed the Zacks categorized Auto Manufacturers-Domestic industry in the last one month. The company’s shares have gained 2.6% over this period compared with the industry’s 7% increase.

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

Ford currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Better-ranked companies in the auto space include Allison Transmission Holdings Inc. (NYSE:ALSN) , Dana Incorporated (NYSE:DAN) and Ferrari N.V. (NYSE:RACE) each sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Expected long-term growth rate for Allison Transmission, Dana and Ferrari are 11%, 3% and 14.1%, respectively.

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