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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 exchange the MEB and PPE platforms for electrical automobiles, in accordance with Handelsblatt. In Diess’ imaginative and prescient, SSP can be a second-generation electrical automobile platform that may serve the wants of just about each electrical automobile manufactured by all the varied manufacturers inside the Volkswagen Group. It will keep away from the prices related to utilizing quite a lot of totally different electrical automobile 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 growth course of has not gone easily. Initially, the brand new Volkswagen platform was presupposed to be prepared by 2026. Diess needed to construct a brand new manufacturing unit in Wolfsburg to construct SSP-based automobiles, 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 attempting to carry order out of the chaos at Lovethe corporate’s standalone software program division. Issues didn’t go properly with that effort and phrase bought out that the SSP platform can be delayed till 2030 — gloomy information for Volkswagen.
Talking at a latest occasion to rejoice the fiftieth anniversary of the Volkswagen Golf, Thomas Schäfer, the CEO of the Volkswagen model, mentioned the corporate plans to launch its next-generation electrical automobiles on the SSP chassis in 2028. He didn’t disclose the title or every other particulars concerning the mannequin that may debut the brand new platform. Volkswagen Group has confirmed that will probably 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 tip of the last decade.
MEB-based EVs aren’t promoting in addition to anticipated, so Volkswagen wants to make sure that there aren’t any additional delays in rolling out next-generation electrical automobiles primarily based on the SSP structure. Handlesblatt says within the first quarter of 2024, Volkswagen Group’s electrical automobile gross sales in Europe declined by 24%. The corporate has needed to repeatedly reduce production at its Emden and Zwickau home vegetation due to overcapacity.
Volkswagen Group can also be below stress from buyers to ship good outcomes. Its share worth hasn’t grown a lot in a yr. Final October, it even dipped beneath €100, a worrying growth. Any additional setbacks within the rollout of the SSP platform and the brand new fashions primarily based on it might shake the arrogance of buyers once more. The corporate might have modified the physique model of its first SSP-based EV, however it can nonetheless be a part of the Trinity program initiated by Diess. The corporate has confirmed that the primary SSP-based automobile can be assembled at its Zwickau manufacturing unit. It has additionally permitted an SSP-based Golf EV that can be made in Wolfsburg.
The corporate could also be one of many largest automobile producers on the planet nevertheless it has definitely discovered the transition to electrical automobiles to be difficult, significantly with regard to adapting to the “car as rolling computer” idea pioneered by Tesla. Its primary EV technology appears strong sufficient. It claims to have made main enhancements in batteries and powertrains, however getting the software right has been an ongoing nightmare that has delayed essential new electrical fashions from some members of the Volkswagen Group — most notably Porsche and Audi.
Immediately, inside the firm, there are a selection 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 automobile enterprise is utilizing as many frequent parts as doable to drive economies of scale whereas making completed merchandise that don’t all appear to be cookie cutter copies of one another in order that they attraction to consumers with totally different tastes. If the SSP platform may help Volkswagen Group stay aggressive in an more and more difficult enterprise setting, that’s excellent news for electrical automobiles advocates. If it doesn’t, then even a large company like Volkswagen may very well be in deep trouble.
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