Volkswagen is in talks with other automakers to share its premium EV technology
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Volkswagen (VW) Group is in discussions with other automakers to potentially share the electric vehicle (EV) technology it used in upcoming Porsche and Audi EVs, according to Ulrich Widmann, Audi's head of development for the joint Audi-Porsche project, cited by Automotive News. The EV technology, called Premium Platform Electric (PPE), is a platform that can serve as the base for multiple vehicle models.
VW is spending billions on developing new EV technologies, and licensing the PPE platform would help VW begin to recoup its investments. As of April 2019, VW has committed to spending $91 billion on EV technology, the largest commitment of any automaker, according to Reuters.
Licensing its premium EV platform to other automakers will enable VW to make money off the technology now, while EV sales still represent a small portion of overall vehicle sales — EVs comprised just over 5 million of the almost 85 million new vehicles sold globally in 2018 — as it waits for them to gain greater traction with consumers. The global fleet of EVs is expected to grow quickly, surpassing 130 million by 2030, per the International Energy Agency.
Automakers that may not have the same EV research and development resources as VW could see the PPE platform as a path to enter the burgeoning market. VW's product will likely be of great interest to smaller automakers or those that haven't made inroads into EV development yet.
Adopting VW's tech would enable these rival automakers to offer an EV model to capture a slice of the evolving auto market, without spending years on developing their own tech. VW's premium EV tech could also help automakers that already have EV models expand their range of offerings. Ford followed this approach in July 2019 when it signed a deal to use a different VW EV platform as the base for an upcoming vehicle, enabling it to present customers with more EV options than its in-house EV tech would allow.
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