For months, we have now been listening to concerning the difficulties Volkswagen Group has been having with Cariad, its software program division. There have have been experiences of harsh phrases spoken within the boardroom by each Audi and Porsche representatives as a result of points with Cariad are stopping it from bringing new electrical automobile fashions to market in a well timed vogue.

The MEB platform could also be okay for the ID.-branded vehicles for the Volkswagen model, however not the reply the opposite manufacturers want. There was discuss of a brand new platform known as the Scalable Techniques Platform, or SSP. It was purported to be the following step ahead for Volkswagen Group and the idea for the following era of EVs for all its divisions.

The plan began whereas Herbert Diess was on the helm of the world’s second largest automaker. The delay in getting the SSP into manufacturing most likely performed a job in Diess being kicked upstairs so Oliver Blume, head of the Porsche model, may take his place and get the SSP platform and the Cariad division again on monitor.

There have been rumors that SSP is likely to be delayed till 2027, whereas others stated 2029 on the earliest. Then just a few weeks in the past, Blume instructed traders the SSP undertaking is again on monitor and might be prepared by 2026. This follows a housecleaning at Cariad that noticed all the highest managers put out to pasture and a brand new workforce introduced onboard.

Blume instructed these in attendance, “The SSP structure will stability the necessity for scale and standardization with differentiation and pace,” in keeping with Autocar. Initially, SSP was purported to be able to dealing with as much as 1100 horsepower, however Blume now says the platform will be capable to help vehicles with as much as 1700 horsepower.

Within the meantime, Porsche and Audi are working collectively on yet one more electrical automobile platform, this one generally known as PPE, which stands for Premium Platform Electrical. That structure will kind the idea of the brand new battery-electric Porsche Macan and one or two fashions from Audi.

Audi In China

Audi is dependent upon gross sales in China for a lot of its enterprise. It presently sells two EV fashions in China, the This fall e-tron and Q5 e-tron, each of that are primarily based on the MEB platform. However gross sales have been lower than what the corporate hoped for, as fashions from Tesla and Nio, amongst others, have outsold the choices from Audi by a large margin.

All of this tumult has led Audi to a moderately startling resolution. Based on Automobilwoche, the German language model of Automotive Information, Audi is contemplating shopping for an electrical automobile platform from a competitor in China to shorten growth instances for future fashions.

Audi must replace and increase its EV choices to maintain up with opponents, particularly in China, after key new electrical fashions such because the Q6 E-tron had been delayed on account of software program issues and its Artemis undertaking for an autonomous flagship automobile was axed, AN experiences.

Bear in mind how Oliver Blume stated just some weeks in the past the SSP platform was again on monitor? Perhaps it’s and possibly it isn’t. The report from Automotive Information says it has been pushed again to 2029 and Audi is determined to get its Q6 e-tron into manufacturing and accessible for purchasers in China. Volkswagen Group CEO Oliver Blume has already authorized Audi’s plan, sources have stated, and it might be authorized at a gathering of the Audi board of administration this week.

Precisely who would provide an electrical automobile platform to Audi is unclear at this level. AN says it might be both BYD or BAIC. Reuters says its sources declare SAIC would be the supply. Others tells AN that Audi is speaking with a number of corporations and that no resolution has been made as of but, however that Audi’s future EVs seemingly will nonetheless use styling parts from the automaker’s collection of Sphere ideas.

The Reuters report says Audi desires to take over the EV platform owned by SAIC’s EV unit — IM Motors — which began supply of its first mannequin, the L7 sedan, in June of final 12 months. It’s a premium EV model managed by SAIC, and its traders embrace e-commerce big Alibaba Group. The sources stated talks are at an “superior stage,” with out additional elaboration.

Audi declined to touch upon whether or not the talks had been going down. SAIC declined to remark. Reuters stated it was not instantly capable of set up the value Audi has provided for the EV platform or whether or not SAIC would nonetheless be concerned in making the L7 sedan if a deal is struck between the businesses. Chinese language media outlet Mingjing Professional reported Audi’s potential takeover of the platform on Tuesday, Reuters stated.

Gross sales of Audi electrical vehicles in China have been nicely beneath expectations. Within the first quarter, solely 3000 vehicles had been delivered to clients in China. As compared, BMW bought 21,646 EVs and Tesla bought 137,429 vehicles, in keeping with knowledge from the China Affiliation of Car Producers.

Outgoing Audi CEO Markus Duesmann earlier this 12 months promised that the model had “product fireworks” within the pipeline, with out being particular. Duesmann might be changed as CEO on September 1 by Gernot Doellner, who was the chief strategist for the Volkswagen Group till his new appointment.

The PPE platform that Audi and Porsche are creating will function the idea for vehicles produced at a brand new Audi manufacturing facility below development within the northeastern metropolis of Changchun. The vehicles manufactured there might be tailor-made particularly to the tastes of Chinese language clients. In the meantime, Audi can also be planning to construct some fashions within the US.

Platforms Matter

Within the auto trade, platforms are what make constructing vehicles a worthwhile enterprise. They’re versatile sufficient to be the idea of a number of completely different fashions, whereas standardized sufficient to leverage the advantages of mass manufacturing. However till now, they’ve been proprietary designs which might be an expression of the most effective engineering an organization can muster. The concept an Audi may look like an Audi however be constructed on a platform from SAIC, BAIC, or BYD is startling.

40 years in the past, Basic Motors obtained into sizzling water with its clients when it began putting in Chevrolet engines in Pontiacs, Buicks, Oldsmobiles, and Cadillacs. GM’s causes had been completely comprehensible. It’s simpler and cheaper to fabricate tens of millions of engines that use the identical bore and stroke and crankshafts than it’s to construct just a few hundred thousand examples of 10 completely different engines, however the clients weren’t impressed with GM’s logic and sued.

What does this information from Audi say about the way forward for the auto trade? Might this be the start of the good consolidation many trade observers have been predicting because the EV revolution started? Would a buyer in Germany plunk down hard-earned euros for an Audi constructed on a Chinese language chassis? The solutions are removed from clear, however might have important penalties for the trade.

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