Volkswagen confirms EV flexibility

The Volkswagen family of cars is about to become one of those families that share everything. And we mean everything.

Volkswagen insists the world of combustion engines has taught it how to make its upcoming range of battery-electric cars better, cheaper and more reliable.

Australia will get its first taste of the new-generation EVs from 2021 with the Volkswagen I.D. hatchback, followed by an SUV – and the Kombi van is almost certain to return to Oz in EV form as well.

Volkswagen insists that developing the MQB (Modular Transverse Matrix) platform that sits beneath everything from the Polo to the five-metre, seven-seat Atlas has taught the company what it needs for its EV platform.

Dubbed the MEB (Modular Electric Toolkit, in German), the all-new EV architecture will be even more flexible for its designers and engineers to work with than the MQB.

And that’s saying something, because MQB-based chassis sit beneath more than 80 percent of the Volkswagen brand’s cars.

"This is a platform to generate volume by using the same parts in a wide variety of models," the project leader of the MEB and the head of its model line, Tino Fuhrmann, said today in Dresden.

"We have less variance than MQB, which is something we needed."

Fuhrmann insisted the MEB chassis architecture would give it economies of scale no other EV maker could match.

It has been planned to tie in everything from scalability for lengths, widths and heights as well as for different battery types, different engines, different suspensions and different exterior body types.

Furhmann insisted Volkswagen plans to use the MEB to launch 27 Volkswagen, Audi, Seat and Skoda models before 2023, with plans for 10 million cars across its lifecycle.

Power to the people

Volkswagen will use just two basic powertrains for all MEB cars and SUVs, depending on whether they were rear- or all-wheel drive, with all MEB cars sharing the same power electronics.

All of Volkswagen's EVs based on MEB will use just one type of permanent synchronous motor (PSM), with the advantage of lighter weight and smaller overall size than asynchronous motors.

The engine developers at Volkswagen will reach different power outputs by installing bigger batteries, changing the gear ratios or spinning the motors faster.

The new platform also improves the economies of scale on autonomous and semi-autonomous driver technology, driver-assistance and interior infotainment systems.

Like the semi-ubiquitous MQB, which is used in the Polo, the Golf, the Golf Sportsvan, the T-Roc, the T-Cross, the Tiguan, the Passat, the Arteon and other US- and China-specific models, as well as Audi, Seat and Skoda models, the MEB will be shared across the Volkswagen Group.

"All that we know from MQB, we put into MEB to get the best scale possible.

"This was the always the idea. Scale, scale, scale.

"It seems that scale effects and putting the pressure on [suppliers] have brought us to a price that we never thought we would get in the beginning," said the VW executive.

"[But] electromobility has one basic problem," Fuhrmann insisted. "The costs of the car are higher and you have to find in each part costs to optimise to get it to an attractive price for the customer."