In a press launch, Volkswagen Group says it’s focusing its strategic alignments and launching efficiency packages in any respect manufacturers to strengthen profitability and money movement. CEO Oliver Blume stated, “We’ve got realigned Volkswagen Group strategically and technologically. Buyer orientation, entrepreneurship, and staff spirit decide our actions. Formidable, strategic return targets with structured efficiency packages strengthen our monetary robustness.”

That may be a load of joyful discuss that really says little or no. However Autocar has its personal tackle the information and it features a suggestion that an ID.1 car — which might be the religious successor to the e-Up! — could also be within the works and will have a base worth of round €17,000.

Volkswagen e-Ups in Barcelona, Spain. Picture by Zach Shahan | CleanTechnica

Utilizing a brand new bespoke electrical platform that may underpin related fashions from sibling manufacturers Cupra and Skoda, the ID.1 will sit beneath the manufacturing model of the just lately revealed ID.2all idea, which VW is aiming to promote for round £22,500 (€26,169). Volkswagen Group CFO Arno Antlitz just lately stated he believes the agency can ship electrical vehicles at this worth level, citing the emergence of cheaper battery supplies and manufacturing strategies.

“In the meanwhile, we’re fairly assured that we will obtain that worth level. There are a variety of improvements approaching the technical facet. This automotive may have the primary in-house battery cells from our Valencia plant. We’re simply ramping up. We may have far more scale by then. [We have also seen a slight] enchancment or reduction on the uncooked materials price. Take a look at lithium: it got here down. Nickel got here down. So, from this angle, we’re fairly assured that we will obtain that €25,000 [£22,500] goal and, on the similar time, have an honest margin.”

Volkswagen has just lately introduced it has a brand new dry coating course of for its batteries that it says will decrease the value of batteries for all of its electrical vehicles. Volkswagen Group is placing a serious emphasis on creating unified battery cell expertise that may be utilized throughout all of its manufacturers, and will probably cut back prices by as much as 50%.

Volkswagen ID.1

His feedback referred particularly to the manufacturing viability of the ID.2, however might recommend the rumored ID.1 at a lower cost level is possible. Autocar says that whereas particulars of the ID.1 structure have but to be divulged, it will likely be distinct from the MEB entry platform that will likely be shared by the ID.2, Cupra Raval, and Skoda’s compact crossover, all of which is able to all be inbuilt Spain starting in 2025. The brand new platform will likely be developed by Volkswagen Group, with Skoda enjoying a key position. Will probably be related in measurement and inside area to the VW Polo.

Volkswagen model boss Thomas Schäfer has declined to say whether or not the brand new metropolis automotive can be known as ID.1 or ID Polo. Though, he has stated the usage of traditional mannequin names will likely be reserved for true successors to the unique. The choice to construct the brand new small automotive might rely upon the ultimate Euro 7 emissions guidelines. If they permit Volkswagen to proceed utilizing an inner combustion engine within the Polo, the small electrical automotive may very well be placed on maintain.

If there may be an ID.1, it will likely be meant largely for city use, which means vary will likely be a secondary concern. That, in flip, will permit the corporate to suit a smaller battery which is able to assist make the lower cost doable. Volkswagen has developed a 38 kWh LFP battery for the ID.2all, and that’s prone to be the biggest capability thought of for the brand new mannequin. That might permit a spread of round 200 would nonetheless probably permit for a spread of beneath 200 miles, which might be much like the Fiat 500e.

Schäfer has hinted the brand new low worth mannequin may very well be inbuilt markets similar to India, the place Volkswagen Group has manufacturing amenities and the price of manufacturing is decrease. Nevertheless, it may very well be supplied in Europe and tariff guidelines would possibly make some native manufacturing doable.

Volkswagen SSP Platform Again On Observe For 2026

We hear so much about platforms for electrical autos. Final week, Hyundai introduced it’s planning the successor to its E-GMP EV platform. The brand new Built-in Modular Platform is designed to function the premise for all EVs from the Hyundai Group sooner or later. A platform is an extension of the manufacturing philosophy pioneered by Henry Ford greater than a century in the past. As an alternative of creating each automotive by hand, standardize the design and the components to make it price much less.

The trendy platform for electrical vehicles seeks to standardize as many components prospects don’t see as doable — battery administration and cooling techniques, motors, battery packs, inverters, and so forth — so vehicles may be assembled rapidly and profitably. The wheelbase and the width of the vehicles produced could change however the coronary heart of the vehicles would be the similar and are available from a typical components bin. These days, software program has grow to be as necessary as {hardware}, as producers battle to include over-the-air updates and semi-autonomous driving techniques into their vehicles — two improvements that Tesla pioneered a decade in the past.

When Herbert Diess was operating the present at Volkswagen Group, he was pushing the event of a second-generation electrical automotive platform that might serve the wants of just about each electrical automotive manufactured by all the assorted manufacturers throughout the group. Referred to as the Scalable Techniques Platform, it was imagined to keep away from the prices related to utilizing quite a lot of totally different electrical automotive platforms. Whereas ready for the SSP platform, Audi is main the way in which on a Premium Efficiency Electrical platform that would be the foundation of the upcoming Porsche e-Macan and Audi Q6 e-tron.

In the end, Volkswagen Group desires a unified electrical automotive platform that may function the premise for the whole lot from small metropolis vehicles to mighty sports activities vehicles. As it’s, is has the MEB platform, a deliberate MEB+ platform coming in 2025, an MEB Entry platform that will likely be used for vehicles just like the ID.2all, maybe one more platform for the proposed ID.1 talked about above, and the PPE from Porsche/Audi.

The CARIAD Dilemma

A couple of months again, there was an rebellion at Volkswagen as a result of the software program improvement for the SSP platform was years behind. Porsche and Audi had been screaming that their improvement plans had been being torpedoed by the delay. Consequently, the whole administration staff at CARIAD, the subsidiary answerable for software program improvement, was tossed overboard and there have been dire warnings that SSP can be delayed till 2028 — on the earliest.

And but, final week, on the capital markets day occasion, present Volkswagen Group CEO Oliver Blume instructed buyers the SSP challenge is again on observe and will likely be prepared by 2026. That new administration staff at CARIAD have to be composed of superheroes! Blume instructed these in attendance, “The SSP structure will stability the necessity for scale and standardization with differentiation and pace,” in accordance with Autocar. Initially, SSP was imagined to be able to dealing with as much as 1100 horsepower, however Blume now says the platform will be capable of assist vehicles with as much as 1700 horsepower. That hints at the potential for some fairly superb future electrics coming from Porsche, Bentley, or Lamborghini.

Blume added that “most” autos on the SSP platform will obtain revenue margin parity with standard vehicles. That parity is barely doable with a few of the fashions primarily based on the MEB platform. “Architectures cowl as much as 75% of all materials prices for BEV, in comparison with as much as 10% for ICE,” Blume stated. “Due to this fact, architectures are a key driver for profitability sooner or later.”

With the SSP platform, charging occasions from 10% to 80% SOC will likely be lowered to about 12 minutes in comparison with 35 minutes for MEB-based fashions. As well as, the software program 2.0 and digital structure will permit for hands-free driving as much as Stage 4.

Duty for implementing the SSP platform will likely be assigned to varied group members. Structure elements for superminis and metropolis vehicles will likely be led by the Volkswagen model and utilized by Cupra, Skoda, and Audi. Compact and midsized components will likely be developed by Audi and utilized by Volkswagen, Porsche, and Skoda. Porsche will lead improvement of enormous automotive elements utilized by itself, Audi, Bentley, and Lamborghini. Blume claimed that Volkswagen Group might cut back capital expenditure and improvement prices by 30% in comparison with the MEB platform.

The Takeaway

Like Hyundai, Ford, GM, and most different legacy automakers, Volkswagen is placing some huge cash and energy into the transition to electrical vehicles. However as one particular person commented in our current Hyundai story, they’re nonetheless planning to crank out thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of standard vehicles and vans powered by infernal combustion engines to pay for the price of the transition. The EV revolution is progressing, however it’s removed from over.