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VW's New EV Platform Cuts Costs by 40%
Volkswagen AG says a new chassis design made it 40% cheaper to electrify its ID.3 small car than to turn a conventional vehicle into an EV.
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Volkswagen AG says a new chassis design made it 40% cheaper to electrify its ID.3 small car than to turn a conventional Golf into an EV.
The savings come by using a dedicated EV platform—VW’s new MEB (modular electric toolkit) architecture (right), CEO Herbert Diess tells investors. He attributes most of the cost reduction to the platform’s integrated design and optimization for the battery and other components.
VW launched production of the ID.3, which is slightly larger than the Golf, earlier this month at its Zwickau, Germany, factory. That facility now will be used exclusively to assemble EVs, a step Diess says reduces production costs by another 5% to 10%.
Next autumn, VW also will begin making the ID.3 at the company’s Glaserne Manufaktur plant in Dresden. That facility previously produced the e-Golf and Phaeton luxury sedan.
In Europe, the new EV will be base-priced at less than €30,000. There are no plans to sell the ID.3 in the U.S.
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