Volkswagen Group has multiple platforms that it’s using for electric vehicles but in a few years, it will switch to a single platform. It will be a highly flexible platform on which models from all brands and segments could be based.
The program, known as Scalable Systems Platform, or SSP will current MEB and PPE platforms. It will be developed by Volkswagen’s Project Trinity. The details of the new programs were announced by the firm last week. The platform is being developed within Volkswagen.
It will be used in 2024 or 2025 for the first time to develop a car following Audi’s Project Artemis. The current MEB and PPE architectures provide the basis for the new platform’s hardware. The MEB platform supports mainstream EVs and the upcoming PPE platform will support premium EVs. By the end of 2022, 24 EVs will be based on the MEB electric platform including the Skoda Enyaq and Audi Q4 e-tron.
Talking about the new platform, the group boss Herbert Diess said the platform will unify the existing platform over a few years. The platform’s first project will be based on Artemis in 2024/2025. We are utilizing the MEB architecture and the standardization of the battery and its cost reduction will also be required. We want our new platform to offer more computing power. With time, it will become the only platform for the group, but that can take up to 14 years.
The firm wants to provide standardized technical foundations across its brands and this step is a follow-up to that. In the future, we will see an increase in the use of standardized platforms, batteries, and software. The group’s brands like Bentley, Porsche, and Audi already share its platform, but this approach will be taken more aggressively in the future to strengthen its presence in the market.
Diess said their platforms have played a key role in the group’s success and now they want to take the platform to a new level. The standardized approach will not be limited only to the platform, the firm plans to introduce a common battery cell design in two years as well.