Volkswagen's 10-million-unit Plan

Washington DC November 27, 2007; The AIADA newsletter reported that Volkswagen group is planning a major change in the way it will engineer cars in the future according to Automotive News. The report said that the move is part of a plan to cut development costs, double its global sales, and eventually catch Toyota. The biggest change will be VW’s new transverse-engine architecture for small-, lower-medium and upper-medium models. It could underpin up to six million cars, making it the industry’s biggest platform.

The new approach will help VW to build cars faster, cut development times by up to a year and reduce costs by 25 percent to 40 percent. That will help VW’s ambitious drive to boost group sales to 10 million by 2018 from 5.7 million in 2006 and challenge Toyota for global leadership.

In VW’s new system, basic structures can vary, but elements that matter in developing crumple zones that protect passengers - the positions of the engine, front axle and drivers’ pedals - are fixed. That vastly simplifies and speeds development.