The Accessor Winter 2025 Web - Flipbook - Page 12
JOURNAL
VM TECH
“ICE, ICE BABY….”
A tale of a manufacturer competing in a very busy market. By Andrew Marsh, FIMI, Hon member of IAEA.
his is a tale of one
division of Volkswagen
Group – Audi AG.
Outwardly the newer
companies from China
see Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz
and Porsche as the ‘must beat’ bench
mark. Some press releases from these
companies try all sorts of ways to
convey that somehow, on a damp
Tuesday in a sea-side resort somewhere
in the world, they were better.
T
There is no doubt the newer
manufactures have so thoroughly
matched the European brands
that in terms of rear seat leg room,
connectivity, some aspects of ADAS,
external panel 昀椀t, inevitable ‘light bars’
and – especially – price, they are on
the money.
There is a fundamental difference
between the Japan / China vehicle
manufacturing process and that
typically found in Europe.
• European manufacturers and their
supplier partners develop model
speci昀椀c ideas into model speci昀椀c
parts. Yes, the core technology
might be shared but the application
more often than not will be slightly
different, model by model
• China based manufacturers adopted
the Japan style of powerful supplier
partners, who make a core product
used by many. So, we 昀椀nd internal
combustion engines have few
variations, similarly for transmissions,
electric drive components and so
on – right the way down to the most
expensive bits by weight, ‘brackets’,
mainly thanks to the required paint /
plating protection
• Many of these components only
sourced from a gaggle of specialist
companies is mostly unknown
outside of China or Japan, where
the idea is to re-use the most
expensive items – parts not normally
seen by the end user – as much as
possible
• In the European sense this would
be like BMW sharing MQB Evo
platform bits with Stellantis, with
VWG as the lead via an anonymous
‘supplier’ company
The approach suits mass market
products and where the main layout
of the vehicle really does not change
much generation by generation. So,
instead of a uniquely tooled brand
new model appearing every 昀椀ve or
seven years, a refresh can be launched
every two years. Over the same period,
introducing relatively small changes
each time, gives something ‘new’ to
sell more frequently than waiting 昀椀ve
years with one change to bumpers /
lights / interior.
For the time being, European
manufacturers sharing parts in this way
remains within their groups.
VWG had a painful development of
group-wide and product-wide software
via the internal division Cariad, leading
to the loss of several company leaders
and product introduction delays. To
help out, an intermediate package
called E3 1.2 (‘End to End Electrical’
architecture V1.2) – which reduces the
entire vehicle control system to 5 main
high-performance computers (‘HCP’)
modules, which cover the entire vehicle
electronic system functions.
The next part was the 昀椀rst dedicated
BEV platform for mass-market
Audi – the Premium Platform Electric
(‘PPE’). There is also a Premium
Platform Combustion (‘PPC’) for
internal combustion engine powered
versions - yes, that’s the ICE.
Audi Q6 e-tron has an aluminium
bonnet, tailgate, bumper beam
assemblies, front chassis leg, front strut
tower casting as well as one of the two
sill reinforcement members. The parts
shown in purple are all hot formed
UUS steel – the main 昀氀oor, A pillar
reinforcement, cant rail reinforcement,
sill reinforcement (the second one),
sill inner, and rear chassis leg. The 昀氀at
main 昀氀oor in hot formed UHS steel
alloy is a new feature for VWG – it has
transverse members to transfer impact
energy across the car in the event of
side impact.
12
THE ASSESSORS JOURNAL | WINTER 2025 | www.iaea-online.org/news/the-assessor
