INGOLSTADT, Germany — Automakers from Detroit and Tokyo, Seoul and Stuttgart and all points in among forever introduce every new electric powered vehicle as their personal “Tesla killer.”
Despite the high competition and some different issues it faces, Tesla has grown swiftly. Meanwhile, EV sales using the relaxation of the enterprise remain feeble.
If there’s an electrified silver bullet, even though, it can be forged in Wolfsburg, Ingolstadt and Stuttgart. That’s in which Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche have shaved off almost a 3rd of the costs of developing EVs.
How? By the use of shared platforms and modules from their existing parts bins to construct a coming fleet of battery-electric powered motors. Tesla, which makes nothing but EVs, does not have that choice.
The 2020 Audi e-Tron, which U.S. Dealers will begin handing over in the second area, is the primary of what Volkswagen Group promises will be a wave of 70 electric models — 22 million automobiles globally — throughout its many brands over the following ten years.
Almost all of those following vehicles will journey on a pair of conventional systems. One, called MEB, will cover smaller EVs, commonly with the aid of Volkswagen and European brands Skoda and Seat, together with the Volkswagen I.D. Crozz scheduled to go into manufacturing and begin U.S. Deliveries in 2020. The different, called PPE, will cowl large EVs, including the Porsche Macan and future models mostly from Porsche and Audi.
“Group synergies in development reduces costs via 30 per cent,” said Hans-Joachim Rothenpieler, who heads technical development on the Audi Board of Management. Audi plans to marketplace its upcoming EVs at a feed point roughly equal to the premium it used to price for a version with a turbodiesel engine. The VW logo plans to do the equivalent with its electric fleet, which includes a Golf-size EV it calls the I.D. With a purpose to be constructed beginning this year and go on sale in Europe for beneath €30,000, or about $34,000.
Because Audi sits inside the middle of Volkswagen Group’s brand lineup — above the eponymous VW emblem and under Porsche — its designers and engineers can experience unfastened to borrow liberally from both when growing an EV. They also are loose to tug pre-current modules from Audi’s combustion engine lineup.
“You will see lots of modules getting used inside the combustion engine global and within the electrically powered world because the question of the drivetrain does not torment the one’s modules,” stated Stefan Niemand, head of the electrification for Audi.
On thee-Tron, Niemand stated, “You see the axles, the suspension, the brake system from the Q7. You see the seats taken from the A6. You see the infotainment gadget taken from the A8.”
On a company degree, Volkswagen has deployed a platform strategy throughout its many manufacturers for years as an effective way to shave design and supply expenses from its international lineup. It’s one of the principal motives the automaker has remained profitable, even thru a diesel emissions crisis that has value it correctly in extra of $30 billion.
Doing the same aspect with its coming fleet of EVs “isn’t always definitely greatly one-of-a-kind from the internal combustion world. You recognise, it changed into a totally a hit method,” Niemand said. “The platform of the Q7 is also utilised by the [Porsche] Cayenne and by the [VW] Touareg, and you may see the same for the PPE. At the instant, Audi and Porsche are building automobiles on this platform, and I agree with inside the future, there may be more manufacturers constructing more brands in this platform.”
