Volkswagen Targets €17,000 ID.1, Claims SSP Platform Will Have Up To 1700 BHP

In a press launch, Volkswagen Group says it’s focusing its strategic alignments and launching efficiency packages in any respect manufacturers to strengthen profitability and money move. CEO Oliver Blume stated, “We have now realigned Volkswagen Group strategically and technologically. Buyer orientation, entrepreneurship, and group spirit decide our actions. Bold, strategic return targets with structured efficiency packages strengthen our monetary robustness.”

That may be a load of glad discuss that really says little or no. However Autocar has its personal tackle the information and it features a suggestion that an ID.1 automobile — which might be the religious successor to the e-Up! — could also be within the works and will have a base worth of round €17,000.

Volkswagen e-Ups in Barcelona, Spain. Photograph by Zach Shahan | CleanTechnica

Utilizing a brand new bespoke electrical platform that may underpin comparable fashions from sibling manufacturers Cupra and Skoda, the ID.1 will sit beneath the manufacturing model of the lately revealed ID.2all idea, which VW is aiming to promote for round £22,500 (€26,169). Volkswagen Group CFO Arno Antlitz lately stated he believes the agency can ship electrical vehicles at this worth level, citing the emergence of cheaper battery supplies and manufacturing strategies.

“In the interim, we’re fairly assured that we are able to obtain that worth level. There are a whole lot of improvements approaching the technical aspect. This automobile may have the primary in-house battery cells from our Valencia plant. We’re simply ramping up. We may have way more scale by then. [We have also seen a slight] enchancment or aid on the uncooked materials value. Take a look at lithium: it got here down. Nickel got here down. So, from this angle, we’re fairly assured that we are able to obtain that €25,000 [£22,500] goal and, on the similar time, have a good margin.”

Volkswagen has lately introduced it has a brand new dry coating course of for its batteries that it says will decrease the worth of batteries for all of its electrical vehicles. Volkswagen Group is placing a serious emphasis on growing unified battery cell know-how that may be utilized throughout all of its manufacturers, and will doubtlessly cut back prices by as much as 50%.

Volkswagen ID.1

His feedback referred particularly to the manufacturing viability of the ID.2, however may recommend the rumored ID.1 at a lower cost level is possible. Autocar says that whereas particulars of the ID.1 structure have but to be divulged, it is going to be distinct from the MEB entry platform that will probably be shared by the ID.2, Cupra Raval, and Skoda’s compact crossover, all of which is able to all be in-built Spain starting in 2025. The brand new platform will probably be developed by Volkswagen Group, with Skoda taking part in a key function. It will likely be comparable in measurement and inside area to the VW Polo.

Volkswagen model boss Thomas Schäfer has declined to say whether or not the brand new metropolis automobile can be known as ID.1 or ID Polo. Though, he has stated the usage of traditional mannequin names will probably be reserved for true successors to the unique. The choice to construct the brand new small automobile may rely upon the ultimate Euro 7 emissions guidelines. If they permit Volkswagen to proceed utilizing an inside combustion engine within the Polo, the small electrical automobile might be placed on maintain.

If there’s an ID.1, it is going to be meant largely for city use, that means vary will probably be a secondary concern. That, in flip, will enable the corporate to suit a smaller battery which is able to assist make the lower cost doable. Volkswagen has developed a 38 kWh LFP battery for the ID.2all, and that’s more likely to be the most important capability thought of for the brand new mannequin. That may enable a variety of round 200 would nonetheless doubtlessly enable for a variety of beneath 200 miles, which might be just like the Fiat 500e.

Schäfer has hinted the brand new low worth mannequin might be in-built markets corresponding to India, the place Volkswagen Group has manufacturing services and the price of manufacturing is decrease. Nevertheless, it might be provided in Europe and tariff guidelines would possibly make some native manufacturing doable.

Volkswagen SSP Platform Again On Monitor For 2026

We hear rather a lot about platforms for electrical automobiles. Final week, Hyundai introduced it’s planning the successor to its E-GMP EV platform. The brand new Built-in Modular Platform is designed to function the idea for all EVs from the Hyundai Group sooner or later. A platform is an extension of the manufacturing philosophy pioneered by Henry Ford greater than a century in the past. As an alternative of creating each automobile by hand, standardize the design and the elements to make it value much less.

The trendy platform for electrical vehicles seeks to standardize as many elements prospects don’t see as doable — battery administration and cooling programs, motors, battery packs, inverters, and so forth — so vehicles might be assembled rapidly and profitably. The wheelbase and the width of the vehicles produced could change however the coronary heart of the vehicles would be the similar and are available from a typical elements bin. Recently, software program has turn out to be as essential as {hardware}, as producers battle to include over-the-air updates and semi-autonomous driving programs into their vehicles — two improvements that Tesla pioneered a decade in the past.

When Herbert Diess was operating the present at Volkswagen Group, he was pushing the event of a second-generation electrical automobile platform that might serve the wants of just about each electrical automobile manufactured by all the varied manufacturers throughout the group. Referred to as the Scalable Programs Platform, it was alleged to keep away from the prices related to utilizing a variety of completely different electrical automobile platforms. Whereas ready for the SSP platform, Audi is main the best way on a Premium Efficiency Electrical platform that would be the foundation of the upcoming Porsche e-Macan and Audi Q6 e-tron.

In the end, Volkswagen Group desires a unified electrical automobile platform that may function the idea for all the things from small metropolis vehicles to mighty sports activities vehicles. As it’s, is has the MEB platform, a deliberate MEB+ platform coming in 2025, an MEB Entry platform that will probably be used for vehicles just like the ID.2all, maybe yet one more platform for the proposed ID.1 talked about above, and the PPE from Porsche/Audi.

The CARIAD Dilemma

A number of months again, there was an rebellion at Volkswagen as a result of the software program improvement for the SSP platform was years behind. Porsche and Audi had been screaming that their improvement plans had been being torpedoed by the delay. In consequence, the complete administration group at CARIAD, the subsidiary accountable for software program improvement, was tossed overboard and there have been dire warnings that SSP can be delayed till 2028 — on the earliest.

And but, final week, on the capital markets day occasion, present Volkswagen Group CEO Oliver Blume informed buyers the SSP challenge is again on monitor and will probably be prepared by 2026. That new administration group at CARIAD have to be composed of superheroes! Blume informed these in attendance, “The SSP structure will stability the necessity for scale and standardization with differentiation and pace,” in keeping with Autocar. Initially, SSP was alleged to be able to dealing with as much as 1100 horsepower, however Blume now says the platform will be capable to help vehicles with as much as 1700 horsepower. That hints at the potential for some fairly wonderful future electrics coming from Porsche, Bentley, or Lamborghini.

Blume added that “most” automobiles on the SSP platform will obtain revenue margin parity with standard vehicles. That parity is barely doable with a few of the fashions based mostly on the MEB platform. “Architectures cowl as much as 75% of all materials prices for BEV, in comparison with as much as 10% for ICE,” Blume stated. “Subsequently, architectures are a key driver for profitability sooner or later.”

With the SSP platform, charging occasions from 10% to 80% SOC will probably be diminished to about 12 minutes in comparison with 35 minutes for MEB-based fashions. As well as, the software program 2.0 and digital structure will enable for hands-free driving as much as Degree 4.

Accountability for implementing the SSP platform will probably be assigned to numerous group members. Structure parts for superminis and metropolis vehicles will probably be led by the Volkswagen model and utilized by Cupra, Skoda, and Audi. Compact and midsized elements will probably be developed by Audi and utilized by Volkswagen, Porsche, and Skoda. Porsche will lead improvement of huge automobile parts utilized by itself, Audi, Bentley, and Lamborghini. Blume claimed that Volkswagen Group may cut back capital expenditure and improvement prices by 30% in comparison with the MEB platform.

The Takeaway

Like Hyundai, Ford, GM, and most different legacy automakers, Volkswagen is placing some huge cash and energy into the transition to electrical vehicles. However as one particular person commented in our current Hyundai story, they’re nonetheless planning to crank out hundreds of thousands and hundreds of thousands of standard vehicles and vans powered by infernal combustion engines to pay for the price of the transition. The EV revolution is progressing, however it’s removed from over.