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Volkswagen Group started speaking about its Scalable Techniques Platform — SSP for brief — when Herbert Diess was nonetheless the CEO. It was to be the one platform to rule all of them and would substitute the MEB and PPE platforms for electrical autos, in accordance with Handelsblatt. In Diess’ imaginative and prescient, SSP can be 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 Volkswagen Group. It might keep away from the prices related to utilizing various totally different electrical automotive platforms, together with the Premium Efficiency Electrical platform that would be the foundation for the brand new Porsche e-Macan and Audi Q6 e-tron.
The SSP improvement course of has not gone easily. Initially, the brand new Volkswagen platform was alleged to be prepared by 2026. Diess needed to construct a brand new manufacturing unit in Wolfsburg to construct SSP-based vehicles, however that plan ended when the supervisory board put Diess out to pasture and introduced in Oliver Blume to be the ringmaster of Volkswagen Group. Blume shortly mothballed plans for the brand new manufacturing unit and set about making an attempt to convey order out of the chaos at Cariad, the corporate’s standalone software program division. Issues didn’t go effectively with that effort and phrase acquired out that the SSP platform can be delayed till 2030 — gloomy information for Volkswagen.
Talking at a latest occasion to have a good time the fiftieth anniversary of the Volkswagen Golf, Thomas Schäfer, the CEO of the Volkswagen model, stated the corporate plans to launch its next-generation electrical vehicles on the SSP chassis in 2028. He didn’t disclose the identify or every other particulars concerning the mannequin that can debut the brand new platform. Volkswagen Group has confirmed that it will likely be a mechatronics platform with totally different variations for various automobile segments. Initially, the corporate deliberate to place it into use beginning with a extremely aerodynamic sedan in 2026. Later, it determined to go for a extra volume-focused SUV physique model and adjusted the debut timeline to the top of the last decade.
MEB-based EVs aren’t promoting in addition to anticipated, so Volkswagen wants to make sure that there are not any additional delays in rolling out next-generation electrical vehicles based mostly on the SSP structure. Handlesblatt says within the first quarter of 2024, Volkswagen Group’s electrical automotive gross sales in Europe declined by 24%. The corporate has needed to repeatedly cut back manufacturing at its Emden and Zwickau home crops due to overcapacity.
Volkswagen Group can be underneath stress from traders to ship good outcomes. Its share value hasn’t grown a lot in a 12 months. Final October, it even dipped under €100, a worrying improvement. Any additional setbacks within the rollout of the SSP platform and the brand new fashions based mostly on it might shake the arrogance of traders once more. The corporate might have modified the physique model of its first SSP-based EV, however it should nonetheless be a part of the Trinity program initiated by Diess. The corporate has confirmed that the primary SSP-based automotive will likely be assembled at its Zwickau manufacturing unit. It has additionally permitted an SSP-based Golf EV that will likely be made in Wolfsburg.
The corporate could also be one of many largest automotive producers on the earth however it has actually discovered the transition to electrical vehicles to be difficult, notably with regard to adapting to the “car as rolling computer” idea pioneered by Tesla. Its primary EV know-how appears strong sufficient. It claims to have made main enhancements in batteries and powertrains, however getting the software program proper has been an ongoing nightmare that has delayed necessary new electrical fashions from some members of the Volkswagen Group — most notably Porsche and Audi.
Immediately, throughout the firm, there are a variety of EV platforms, from a number of variations of the unique MEB, to the PPE platform, to the J1 platform used for the Porsche Taycan. The important thing to earning profits within the automotive enterprise is utilizing as many widespread parts as attainable to drive economies of scale whereas making completed merchandise that don’t all appear like cookie cutter copies of one another so that they enchantment to consumers with totally different tastes. If the SSP platform may help Volkswagen Group stay aggressive in an more and more difficult enterprise surroundings, that’s excellent news for electrical vehicles advocates. If it doesn’t, then even an enormous company like Volkswagen could possibly be in deep trouble.
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