Volkswagen Brand CEO Talks New Electric Platforms

Since the emissions scandal kicked off, the VW Group has embarked on a fast-track program to get full-electric cars on the road.

An all-new platform called MEB (modular electric kit) will be introduced to make all-electric compact cars. VW brand CEO Herbert Diess says it uses a flat-floor type battery so it can make room for more electrical storage than today’s all-electric e-Golf.

Diess joined the VW group in mid-2015. His previous roles were at BMW, where he headed purchasing then R & D. As R & D chief he saw through the i3 and i8, so he has credibility on electric vehicles.

Because the VW Group is starting almost from scratch with MEB, Diess acknowledges the first cars won’t be launched for three or four years. But he says to be relaxed about this timeframe. By that date, he says, improved charging infrastructure and market acceptance will mean these MEB vehicles can hit high sales volume.

VW’s mainstream MQB components set can’t do the job for long-range EVs. “The MQB is very versatile,” he says. “It can use any engine, from diesel, gasoline, hybrid, plug-in hybrid [e.g. the Golf GTE and the new Tiguan GTE that Diess announced at the Tokyo show] and even electric [the Golf e]. But in the end there is a constraint in range.” We understand there isn’t space to package a big battery in the MQB, and the car’s structure is heavy. “The successor to MQB will also require improvement regarding weight to improve the hybrids and PHEV and to get more electric range. But over and above that we decided we also need an electric platform. That’s [a] new [decision].”

He says a corporation that makes as many vehicles as the VW Group can afford this dedicated EV platform. “This can cover all the brands, covering cars bigger and smaller than the Golf, with ranges of 300-500 km (about 190-310 miles),” he says. “It’s much easier to make full use of the electric technology if you dedicate a platform to it. We have enough scale to dedicate one of our platforms to electromobility.”

The company had announced that the successor to the VW Phaeton will be an all-electric car. Diess says this is not just a case of dropping the gasoline version. “We are starting anew,” he says. “Styling, platform, everything. In this class, bigger [vehicles] than the MEB, Audi is launching a car [shown as the eTron Quattro concept at Frankfurt], Porsche is launching a car [the Mission E]. We have decided the Phaeton will go onto this electric platform.”

The production Audi will likely be called Q6 e-Tron and is well down the development path for a launch in 2018. It uses the suspension and many other components of the MLB Evo platform that has already launched in the new generations of Q7 and A4 in Europe. But the major floor section, covering pretty much the whole wheelbase, is very different in order to accommodate the big, flat battery pack.

The Porsche has a similar layout but is lower. The Porsche engineer responsible for the Mission E, Stefan Weckbach, told Motor Trend that his car uses chassis parts from the next Panamera, the so-called MSB platform. This despite Diess saying it was the same platform as the Audi Q6 and next Phaeton. The confusion probably arises from the definition of platform—the structure around the battery and motors appears to be able to accommodate different chassis.

The decision to green-light the MEB was in part a reaction to the emissions scandal. He confirms it was taken early October 2015, during strategic talks after the storm broke. “There was discussion already; we have to refocus what we are doing,” he says. “And there is a general discussion, not only in VW but in the industry, about real driving emissions. So the electric car gets more attractive month by month because for conventional cars the emissions are getting more expensive, the limits are coming down. Also the batteries are getting cheaper and the charging infrastructure is getting richer in most countries, so the rationale for investing in electric cars gets better every month.”

On the day VW Group chief engineer Ulrich Hackenberg unveiled the Audi concept at Frankfurt, he told us of a plan among the German electricity suppliers to have 400 charging stations of 480 volts across the German autobahn network by 2018. This would enable one-hour charging of his SUV. He also said that to make sure they are able to get battery costs down by supplier competition, VW’s batteries will be able to use cylindrical cells like Tesla’s, prismatic cells, or pouch cells. Such competition among suppliers will drive down costs.

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