Audi start to speed up EV strategy, look for the cooperation with Chinese EV platform

As one of the representative car companies focusing on profitability and steady improvement, Audi will also start to speed up.

According to the report of the overseas media "Auto Weekly" in Germany, in order to cope with the competition of China's new energy vehicle track, Audi is considering directly purchasing an electric platform license from a local electric vehicle company in China, so as to shorten the development time of its models. The report also stated that, Negotiations are currently underway.

This is definitely a bold step forward for Audi.

It is worth mentioning that Audi does not currently have an exclusive electric platform. Its electric models use four electric vehicle platforms shared by Volkswagen Group brands. They are the MLB evo platform improved based on the modular longitudinal platform; the high-performance electric platform J1 developed by Porsche for the Taycan; the MEB pure electric platform; the PPE platform jointly developed by Audi and Porsche for medium-sized and large high-end vehicles. Manufacture different kinds of electric vehicles.

The research and development costs of these platforms are huge, and the research and development cycle is long. At present, they have been used in Audi e-tron, Audi e-tron GT concept car, Audi Q4 e-tron and other products. Actively negotiating with Chinese car companies to purchase electric platforms is not only a manifestation of Audi's goal of reducing costs and increasing efficiency, but also that after entering the electric era, the situation of "trading the market for technology" in China's cars in the past is quietly changing.

Reduce costs and increase efficiency, Audi is eager for success

Previously, Volkswagen CEO Obermo seldom publicly criticized the Audi brand, admitting that it was "behind competitors". The market is not competitive.

According to Audi's plan, 30 electric models will be launched in 2025, 20 of which will be pure electric models. It is estimated that the annual output of electric vehicles will reach 800,000 in five years, and the sales of electric vehicles will account for 40% of all car sales. . But behind the ambition is the high cost of continuous expenditure and weak competitiveness.

For Audi, a new production line for automotive product development means high manufacturing costs and post-maintenance costs, while a modular production platform can significantly reduce vehicle production costs, which is more in line with Obermo's business philosophy of reducing costs and increasing efficiency, and its The previous dismissal of the CARIAAD software department followed the same path.

Obermo proposed a "ten-point action plan" after taking office as CEO. Among them, CARIAD ranks behind the planning cycle, products, Chinese market, and North American business, and has become the fifth priority of Volkswagen. However, unlike Diess who emphasizes a high degree of self-development in the software field, Obermo is more inclined to cooperate with external development models.

As a result, CARIAD announced the establishment of a joint venture with Chuangda to accelerate the provision of localized applications related to entertainment content, user experience and user interaction for its models; there was also an investment of 2.4 billion euros to establish a joint venture between CARIAD and Horizon to accelerate Volkswagen's Development progress of advanced driver assistance systems and autonomous driving systems in the Chinese market.

This initiative to negotiate with Chinese car companies, Audi obviously hopes to use the domestic electric platform to help it realize future product planning faster. The business logic behind this is also to reduce costs and increase efficiency, with faster speed and stronger competition force into the field.

At the same time, Audi's move is also reminiscent of the development of its own brand in the way of market transfer to seek development.

Under this model, the Chinese side provides market dividends, and the foreign side exports technology and models. At that time, a large part of China's auto market share and profits were dominated by joint ventures, and most of the self-owned brands did not have enough voice. Time has passed, and as the auto industry enters the electric track, with the strong support of policies and the efforts of self-owned brands, the technical advantages of self-owned brands have gradually emerged, and the cooperation model has changed from market transfer to technology equality and even technology output.

In the cooperation mode of technology export, the foreign party values the low-cost and high-efficiency manufacturing and delivery capabilities of electric vehicles owned by Chinese automakers.

certainly. Audi also took a fancy to these advantages. However, before Audi announced the use of the electric platform of Chinese cars, there were many cases of foreign technology export of independent brands.

The role of technology export is changing

In 2019, Toyota announced that it will join hands with BYD to jointly develop pure electric models and the required power batteries; Cooperation, the two parties will first jointly produce and sell hybrid vehicles based on Lynk & Co's energy-saving platform in South Korea...

Among them, Geely and Renault have cooperated to launch a new energy vehicle lineup, using the modular architecture (CMA) jointly developed by Geely and Volvo. This architectural technique has been used extensively in brands such as Volvo, Proton, Geely and Lynk & Co in the past.

If the cooperation between Audi and Chinese auto brands can be achieved this time, it will be another case of Chinese brand technology export. This further shows that China's past situation of exchanging market for technology in the auto industry will be overturned, and a new role of technology output and equal co-creation is being born.

As for the brands to choose to cooperate with, there are different opinions on the Internet, and there is no definite number. But at present, there are many Chinese brands that can meet the requirements of Audi's electric platform.

For example, BYD e-platform 3.0 is an exclusive pure electric platform developed based on global standards. It is compatible with various drive layouts such as front-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive, and four-wheel drive. It has high scalability and can meet the development requirements of A-class to D-class vehicles. From the entry-level front-wheel drive platform, to the sports driving control rear-wheel drive platform, and then to the four-wheel drive platform suitable for large-size models, the e-platform 3.0 can combine core technologies according to product positioning, user needs, cost control, etc., so as to divide high and low positioning .

Or the SEA Haohan pure electric vehicle platform jointly developed by Geely and Volvo.

It is reported that the SEA vast structure is currently the most widely used pure electric structure in the world, with a wheelbase ranging from 1800mm to 3300mm, realizing full-size coverage from A-class cars to E-class cars, which can meet the needs of sedans, SUVs, MPVs, and small city cars. , sports cars, pickups and future travel vehicles and other styling requirements. At the same time, the SEA vast architecture has "hardware, software and broader integration capabilities", and this platform is ready for advanced autonomous driving systems.

In addition, a pure electric platform like MSP-SAIC Nebula is also an option.

The SAIC Nebula platform has an energy matrix of 44-150kWh and a power range of 150-600kW, covering compact cars, medium-sized cars, medium-to-large cars, luxury cars, sedans, sports cars, SUVs, MPVs and other multi-level and various vehicle products, compatible with high voltage Foundry, solid-state battery, drive-by-wire chassis, full-stack electrical architecture, unmanned driving and other hardware and software technologies.

In addition to the above platforms, there are also new energy platforms such as Changan EPA, Weilai-NT, GAC-AEP 3.0 to choose from. No matter which one Audi chooses, it is a victory for Chinese brands.

Edited and translated by Danny from "汽车公社”. If there is any infringement, please contact to delete. 12/07/2023

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