The two Volkswagen Group brands will work side by side on an eight-year project to build highly advanced large electric cars with advanced automation, but also to save costs
Porsche and Audi, Volkswagen’s main luxury car divisions, plan to develop a joint platform for electric vehicles that will have new levels of electrification, digitalisation and autonomy, according to the plans. Also, this collaboration will enable them significantly cut down on costs, German newspapers quoted their chief executives as saying:
By 2025, we’re facing a low single-digit billion euro sum to develop the architecture. The best brains of both companies will together set the technical course for the future. We are united by many shared values: above all, by our pursuit of the best solutions and the best offerings for our customers.(Audi CEO Rupert Stadler)
If both would act on their own, costs would be 30 percent higher. Audi will be hiring 550 developers for the project and Porsche 300(Porsche CEO Oliver Blume)
From 2021 onward, both businesses want to bring several models to the streets based on the joint platform, and according to a report from Auto Express, the two most prestigious of the Volkswagen Group’s mainstream brands are specifically targeting ‘large electric vehicles’, hinting at fully-electric replacements for the A6, A7, A8 and Panamera, plus the Q7 and Cayenne.
Plans have been made up to tie the two marques’ developmental paths together until 2025, by which time both brands expect to have more than a few electric and heavily electrified hybrids on sale. At the same time, each brand will be free to carry on its own business across its other model ranges.
As the Group’s leaders in propulsion and technology, Audi and Porsche are also likely to influence the non luxury brands Volkswagen, Skoda and Seat. Starting with large cars is likely to allow room for miniaturisation further down the line, which could make for an interesting next 20 years or so.
