Volkswagen Charts Growth of Its New Vehicle Architecture

Volkswagen Group tells Germany's Boersen Zeitung that output of new models using its MQB architecture will zoom from fewer than 1 million this year to about 2 million in 2014 and 4 million in 2016.

VW has said the so-called modular transverse matrix system will help it cut production costs by at least 20%, in large part by commonizing components across multiple vehicle segments.

The company previously estimated that the front-drive MQB architecture eventually would carry about 3.5 million new vehicles per year more than three times the volume of its most widely used previous platform.

The MQB chassis debuted early last year in the Audi A3 sedan and expanded to include the seventh-generation VW Golf several months later. The same front-drive platform carries VW's Up! minicar and the limited-production XL1 plug-in hybrid.

VW also has used the new architecture for two production-ready small crossover concepts, the Cross Coupe and CrossBlue.