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When the Volkswagen ID 2 arrives subsequent 12 months, it will likely be constructed on the MEB+ platform. How is MEB+ totally different from MEB? Primarily as a result of it’ll use LFP battery cells as a substitute of NMC battery cells. The transition will permit the corporate to scale back the price of the ID 2 whereas offering it with acceptable vary. Along with decrease prices, some great benefits of LFP chemistry embrace a better tolerance for frequent charging to 100%, diminished danger of thermal runaway occasions (aka battery fires), and maybe a greater tolerance for charging and working in chilly temperatures.
In keeping with Thomas Shäfer, the CEO of the Volkswagen model, “The improve to MEB + comes subsequent 12 months, and we are going to roll out the cell-to-pack battery methods with LFP. That shall be a serious step ahead by way of price for us. It’s essential, and likewise in efficiency. We’re very proud of that. It’s all in plan. We’ll are available in with MEB + throughout the fashions, together with ID 3, ID 4, ID 7.
“They will have LFP. You can see this move towards LFP across the board, really, except for performance applications on the upper end. In the volume game, LFP is the technology. It will start with ID 2 and then roll out through the models.”
A report by Felix Web page for Autocar says the LFP batteries shall be manufactured on the new Volkswagen Group battery manufacturing unit in Salzgitter, Germany. That manufacturing unit will even proceed making NMC battery packs for different fashions within the Group’s portfolio of automobiles.
Automobiles constructed utilizing the brand new MEB+ platform will even get vital design updates. In 2024, Kai Grunitz, who’s the pinnacle of analysis and improvement for Volkswagen, stated the brand new designs shall be “huge improvements” that hark again to the roots of the corporate. Thomas Shäfer instructed Autocar“Design is your first touch point. That’s what excites people. You have to have an iconic design that people connect with, and it doesn’t matter what kind of drivetrain is underneath. This fascination with ‘is it electric or petrol?’ doesn’t matter if you have an iconic car. You can see it in many examples.”
Platform Potentialities At Volkswagen
There was numerous backing and forthing at Volkswagen about which platforms will carry the corporate into the long run. The unique MEB platform was, in some respects, a rush job designed to fulfill the problem offered by Tesla. Numerous manufacturers throughout the Group, which is to say Audi and Porsche, have developed their very own platforms and have been none to eager to adapt their vehicles to MEB, which they see as inferior.
The Porsche Taycan, for example, is predicated on the J1 electrical automobile platform, whereas the electrical Macan and several other Audi EVs are based mostly on the PPE (Premium Platform Electrical) developed collectively by Audi and Porsche. When Herbert Diess was the pinnacle of Volkswagen Group, he was a powerful advocate for creating an all-new platform known as SSP (Scalable Systems Platform) that might be all issues to all divisions, however it’s generally believed by these outdoors the corporate that there was pushback from Audi and Porsche in regards to the SSP initiative.
How may a mighty Porsche be based mostly on the identical platform because the lowly ID 3? Harrumph. It’s attainable the dissension throughout the company ranks could have been one of many elements that satisfied the Volkswagen board to toss Diess overboard.
In keeping with Wikipedia, “SSP is intended to have a common platform with different modules. The modules will have a limited number of variants to reduce production complexity. This will allow the Volkswagen brands to create differentiated cars, whilst having a high degree of standardization. As well as a shared car platform, there will also be common battery, software, and autonomous driving systems. Reportedly Volkswagen will develop a variant for traditional cars under the code name Trinity, while Audi is creating the variant for SUVs under the code name Apollon.”
The SSP platform was first introduced in 2021, however the newest phrase is that’s is not going to arrive till 2029 on the earliest. Till it does, MEB+ shall be known as upon to underpin the corporate’s electrical automobile choices. Common readers will word that Chinese language automakers appear to develop new platforms and fashions in lower than two years, which illustrates how troublesome it’s for conventional western automobile corporations to compete with them.
A Monster Automotive!
Thomas Shäfer is telling anybody who will hear that there shall be GTI battery-electric variations of all the corporate’s upcoming vehicles, though when that shall be is unknown. We are able to speculate that efficiency variations will make the most of NMC batteries, however that’s actually only a guess. The primary shall be a GTI model of the brand new ID 2, which can seem in 2026 someday after the ID 2 goes into manufacturing. After that, he says the corporate will provide two electrical efficiency variations — GTI and Golf R — of the enduring Golf, which is now in its ninth era.
Schäfer stated work on the electrical GTI fashions is properly underway and that they are going to be true to the traits of each GTI mannequin that has gone earlier than. The intention is for them to really feel solely totally different from the driving force’s perspective than the common manufacturing vehicles they are going to based mostly on. “What about the sound? What about the total feel? The handling and so on can be done,” he instructed Autocar.
He additionally stated an electric Golf is coming and there shall be a GTI model of that automobile as properly. “First of all: can you make an electric Golf exciting? Absolutely,” he instructed Autocar. “We have driven a few prototypes that we have built on the new set-up and it is mind-blowing.” However he’s in no hurry. “We have time now, as the Golf is running very well into the end of this decade, and at the end of the decade, we’ll bring an electric Golf.”
He added that his time behind the wheel of prototypes suggests the subsequent GTI shall be “a monster car. I’m very happy with the progress. It’s cool and you can make it exciting. It has to be exciting and it has to be authentic.” Sadly, it received’t be right here till the beginning of the subsequent decade. Individuals who comply with the auto trade could have legit issues about the place the Chinese language automobile corporations shall be in 5 years and whether or not the brand new GTIs from Volkswagen can have any relevance by then.
Saying an electrical Golf GTI shall be a “monster car” could get headlines, however whether it is 5 years away, a cautious observer may conclude it’ll arrive too late to maintain Volkswagen related. The highway to hell is paved with good intentions. Make sure to verify again with us in 2030 to see if Thomas Shäfer’s crystal ball was correct or badly in want of re-calibration.
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