Volkswagen Group to shift to single platform for future EVs
Underpinnings will be used across the Group’s range of electric vehicles.
The Volkswagen Group has announced that it will make the switch to a single electric vehicle platform in the future.
Set to eventually replace currently-used MEB and PPE platforms, the Scalable Systems Platform (SSP) is currently in development and will likely first see use in 2025 after which ‘models of all brands and segments can then be built’.
It’s part of a wider initiative by the Volkswagen Group to standardise EV operations across the board, lowering production costs and overall vehicle prices in the process. This week the firm also announced that it would begin creating unified battery cells that will be put to use in around 80 per cent of all of the Group’s brands by 2030.
Herbert Diess, CEO of Volkswagen, said: “Electrification and digitalisation are changing vehicles faster and more radically than ever before. Economies of scale are absolutely critical for both issues.
“Our platform roadmap will put us in an even better position to tap the full potential of our Group alliance. By pooling the strengths of our strong brands, we will thus be able to scale up our future technologies even faster and maximise the number of people benefiting from them.”
Platforms are currently shared across the Volkswagen Group – including brands such as Audi, Skoda, Seat and Porsche – with the firm’s Modular Electric Drive Toolkit (MEB) platform already underpinning many vehicles from the range of manufacturers.
In addition, a new Premium Platform Electric (PPE) will be put to use ‘as early as next year’, bringing better acceleration and higher ranges to the Group’s electric cars. Charging times look set to be shortened through the adoption of the platform, too.
