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Modular platform for future electric cars from US manufacturer GM
Photo: Steve Fecht / Genreal Motors
Anyone who played with a construction kit as a child will remember well: Many different things can be put together from the same individual parts.
The auto industry is increasingly making use of this principle.
It is the key to the breakthrough in electromobility - battery vehicles can only be produced cheaply and with a wide range of variants using standardized platforms.
Based on the modular e-drive kit (MEB) of the VW Group, for example, 27 electric models from the Audi, Seat, Skoda and VW brands are to be launched on the market by next year.
The MEB clan is expected to grow to almost 70 types by 2028.
The planners in Wolfsburg expect a total of 22 million MEB vehicles in the next ten years.
An idea from the play corner should turn an entire industry inside out.
"Special electric platforms enable manufacturers to produce their e-cars much more cheaply and also to introduce them to the mass market more quickly," says Achim Kampker, professor of production management at RWTH Aachen University and co-founder of the electric van manufacturer Streetscooter.
VW and MEB represent a trend in the industry.
Hyundai and Kia (electric platform E-GMP), Renault and Nissan (CMF-EV), the PSA group (E-VMP) or Toyota (e-TNGA) also rely on standardized construction kits to expand the range of electric cars quickly and inexpensively .
How platforms make electric cars cheaper
Such technology platforms limit the number of individual components.
They allow significantly larger quantities of these components, because they are used in a large number of models.
It's a bit like a child who doesn't pick up a pocket knife to carve a toy, but rather into the box with the Lego bricks to make something out of it.
For car production, this means that it becomes less complex.
That saves money, the cars can be produced more cheaply.
"Until now it was always said about electric cars that they were too expensive," says Kampker.
“In five years at the latest, however, an electric car should be cheaper than a gasoline one.
Then there are actually no more arguments in favor of the combustion engine. "
The modular principle is not fundamentally new.
Standardized technical frameworks were also developed for combustion models years ago.
Most current electric vehicles are currently based on these, including the BMW iX3 electric SUV, the Mercedes model EQC and the Opel Corsa-e.
Kampker sees no future in this: "It is impossible to build an electric drive train into an existing combustion platform and thus achieve economies of scale." Combustion models converted to electric drive are therefore not a long-term viable business model, but a compromise in order to be able to offer an electric model at all in the short term.
More space for passengers and luggage
"You can't just replace the fuel tank with a lithium-ion battery, because the architecture of the vehicle's substructure has to be adapted to the specific needs in terms of volume and assembly," explains Stéphane Wiscart, who drove the electrification of the Twingo small car at Renault .
In addition, only a specific electrical platform can consistently use the advantages of the drive.
With the MEB from VW, for example, the battery is in the vehicle floor and the electric motor is in the rear.
So the wheelbase can grow and with it the interior.
Customers receive a car with more space for passengers and luggage - with the outside dimensions unchanged.
These advantages can only be achieved with e-platforms, and thus not for diesel and gasoline cars.
The corporations buy dearly for the freedom of design that an electric car kit offers.
The development of the MEB at Volkswagen devoured almost two billion euros.
The sum is put into perspective, however, if VW sells 22 million vehicles based on MEB as planned: Then the new electrical kit would have cost 90 euros per car.
A manageable price for a number of advantages for customers and manufacturers.
Among other things, Volkswagen can only meet the EU's CO₂ requirements thanks to e-mobility and MEB, says Kampker.
Procrastination could be risky
Other German manufacturers are less stringent when it comes to electrification.
Mercedes has developed an e-platform, but is still launching the two electric SUV models EQA and EQB on a remodeled combustion platform.
And BMW does not want to present a platform tailored to electric cars until 2025, which, however, should still be compatible with combustion engines.
In addition, BMW is planning a small series of fuel cell cars by then.
Does such a strategy show disorientation?
Or is it just clever to keep all technology options open?
"That has nothing to do with being open to technology, it is simply dangerous," says Kampker.
Originally, BMW was right at the forefront with the i3 electric car, the car already entered its own electric platform in 2013.
However, the ambitious approach failed - among other things because of the idiosyncratic design of the car, BMW's noticeably decreasing interest in electromobility and the lack of government support at the time.
Kampker: "In doing so, BMW has gambled away its actual pioneering role."
This position fell unchallenged to the US manufacturer Tesla.
His model S electric car, launched in 2012, was designed according to the so-called skateboard principle: four wheels and a flat box in between that contains all the expensive components: e-machine, power electronics, drive train and, above all, the battery.
The wheelbase and track width remained variable, so additional battery packs and thus a longer range were possible - Tesla had many design options.
The subsequent electric car kits follow more or less this structure.
From »skateboard« to »sandwich«
General Motors has now also developed such a platform together with the Korean battery manufacturer LG Chem.
The special feature: The battery packs can be arranged horizontally as well as vertically and thus enable enormous storage capacities of up to 200 kWh.
And Tesla?
Company boss Elon Musk recently announced that the skateboard platform would be retired.
The Model Y, whose production is to start in Grünheide, Brandenburg, this year, is constructed according to the sandwich principle.
That means: The batteries are then integrated into the vehicle frame, which saves weight, leaves more space in the interior and thus offers the manufacturer even more design freedom.
The joy of the other manufacturers in their construction kits may therefore not last very long.
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