Volkswagen board formally okays Ford alliance projects

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Volkswagen <VOWG_p.DE> said on Thursday its supervisory board had approved several projects in a multibillion-dollar alliance with Ford Motor <F.N> that was first announced last July.

The German carmaker said various contracts between the two companies were nearing completion and would be signed soon.

Among the shared projects specified by VW are a midsize pickup to be developed by Ford; a city delivery van to be developed by VW; a larger commercial van to be developed by Ford, and a new electric vehicle for Ford of Europe, to be built on VW's electric vehicle architecture.

Regarding official approval of the agreements, a Ford spokesman on Thursday said, "We look forward to jointly providing an update soon."

VW's statement said "further projects are to follow, as is the investment in Argo AI," the self-driving software company backed by Ford and which eventually will be jointly controlled with VW.

VW's planned $3.1 billion investment in Argo "remains on track and is expected to close soon," Argo said in a statement on Thursday.

(Reporting by Jan C. Schwartz and Paul Lienert; writing by Tom Sims; editing by David Evans and Bernadette Baum)