Ford Sticks With Geely On Volvo Deal. Needs Volvo As Customer And Supplier

“Ford is trying to get the deal done with Zhejiang Geely Holding Group within the next several weeks,” a Ford spokesman said to Dow Jones Newswire. Ford is sticking with Geely, and is pouring cold water on rumors that Ford is entertaining other bids and bidders.

Sweden’s Dagens Industri had reported on Tuesday that Volvo’s CEO Stephen Odell had intimated that “Ford is open to talk with others. Those who say that the door is shut can go to Ford and talk with them whenever they like.” Looks like it’s wishful thinking. Sure, anybody can talk to Ford (if their call is taken.) But they will receive only one answer: “No.”

Ford executives, including Chief Financial Officer Lewis Booth, stressed that Ford has already spent a “considerable amount of time” working with Geely to make sure that Ford’s intellectual property is protected. And they don’t want to go through the whole ordeal again.

Bloomberg reported yesterday that Ford is close to an agreement to preserve trade secrets when Volvo is sold to Geely. “Almost all the outstanding issues have been resolved,” said Tim Burt, a Geely spokesman. “Geely will gain access to all technology throughout the current model range and for those already in development.”

Some technology will be held back, namely new environmental and safety gear.

Ford isn’t just interested to offload Volvo. Ford plans to sell engines to Volvo for as long as a decade, a profitable venture. Ford CFO Lewis Booth underlined their long term goals:

“We want to make sure that if we sell the business, we sell it as a going concern. We need to ensure they have technological support until they can develop it themselves or find it from someone else.”

Ford not only needs Volvo as a customer, they also need them as a supplier. Ford needs Volvo to stay healthy as a supplier of diesel engines for vehicles built in Europe, Booth said. And there could be more commonalities.

Ford’s product development chief Derrick Kuzak, wouldn’t comment when he was asked whether the new Focus introduced at NAIAS would also share the platform with future Volvos. Volvo’s current S40 shares some of the mechanics of the Focus MK 2. The new S40 was scheduled to be based on the platform of the just released Focus MK 3.