The Volkswagen Group will build all its electric vehicles on a single new platform in the future, the German car giant has announced.
The new Scalable Systems Platform (SSP) will eventually replace the MEB and PPE platforms that are currently in use. SSP will likely first see use in 2025 after which ‘models of all brands and segments can then be built’.
The new platform is part of a wider plan by VW Group to standardise its electric vehicle operations – from lowering production costs to vehicles prices, and, as announced this week, creating unified battery cells that will be put to use in around 80 per cent of all of the Group’s brands by 2030.
Herbert Diess, CEO of Volkswagen, said: ‘Electrification and digitalisation are changing vehicles faster and more radically than ever before. Economies of scale are absolutely critical for both issues.
‘Our platform roadmap will put us in an even better position to tap the full potential of our Group alliance.
Our CEO @Herbert_Diess: "In 2024, we start to merge our electric hardware platforms and synchronize with the unified software platform. We call it Scalable Systems Platform. Speedboat projects like Artemis, Trinity and Apollon will lead the transformation." pic.twitter.com/cD0UiI2TyG
— Volkswagen Group (@VWGroup) March 16, 2021
‘By pooling the strengths of our strong brands, we will thus be able to scale up our future technologies even faster and maximise the number of people benefiting from them.’
Platforms are currently shared across the Volkswagen Group – including brands such as Audi, Skoda, Seat and Porsche – with the firm’s Modular Electric Drive Toolkit (MEB) platform already underpinning many vehicles from the range of manufacturers.
In addition, a new Premium Platform Electric (PPE) will be put to use ‘as early as next year’, bringing better acceleration and higher ranges to the Group’s electric cars.
Charging times look set to be shortened through the adoption of the platform, too.
