VW Group reveals expansion plan for next two years

Volkswagen Group has revealed its expansion plan for the next two years at the company's annual conference. The group will launch 50 new and revised cars over the next two-year period, based on three different platforms, and also increase its production facilities globally.

 

Out of the 50 new and revised cars, VW group boss Dr Martin Winterkorn has said that the Audi A4 will lead the pack when it is revealed in 2015-end. The new A4 will be based on Audi’s MLB platform, with extensive use of steel and aluminium in the construction. The architecture was first introduced on the new Audi Q7. The VW group will also debut a facelifted Porsche 911 and a new VW Tiguan SUV by 2015-end. In the American market, the VW brand will launch a facelifted version of the US-market Passat by year end, and a long wheelbase Tiguan along with the production version of the seven-seat CrossBlue SUV by 2016-end.

 

The VW Group will also develop on three existing vehicle architectures - MQB, MLB and MSB - which will underpin the company's extensive model roll-out. Winterkorn said, the ability to build different models from different brands "bumper-to-bumper" on the same three basic production lines will eventually significantly reduce costs and improve profit margins.

 

He said that in 2015, some 2.7 million VW Group models - or 15% of all production - will be based on the new MQB architecture. This will leap to seven million models by 2018, which should make it the biggest common automotive platform project, when it is rolled out. VW Group currently has 18 plants running MQB production lines. This will rise to 29 plants by 2016 to aid the expansion. VW group have also gone on to say that they will use the transverse-engined MQB architecture in the coming years, for models ranging from the VW Golf, VW Passat and Audi Q1 compact SUV to the VW seven-seater SUVs.

 

Audi’s MLB architecture, on the other hand, will underpin all of the brand’s vehicles from the A4 to the Q7, as well as battery-electric Q6 crossover model when it is launched globally. The MLB platform is natively front-wheel drive, but has a longitudinal engine layout.

 

Meanwhile, Porsche is leading the development of the MSB platform. This is primarily a rear-wheel drive platform, which will develop on the architecture that currently underpins the Panamera. It will also feature on all future front-engined Porsches, as well as the next generation of Bentley road cars, including the expected production version of the EXP 10 Speed 6 coupé concept. The two year plan aims to cut engineering costs and shorten production time by using these three ‘modular toolkits’ across all models under the Volkswagen Group.