Michael Taylor•14 Mar 2013
NEWS
Audi, BMW trump Benz in front-drive battleground
It's war... BMW confirms five wheelbases from the UKL platform. Five!Relentless rivals Audi and BMW are threatening to leave traditional premium heavyweight Mercedes-Benz behind as the hot point of their battle moves to front-wheel-drive cars.
Mercedes-Benz is on the back foot, even though it has just launched its small, front-drive CLA in Europe to back up its A-Class and has a two-door coupe and the GLA baby SUV still to come in the next 18 months.
Yet all four models will use not just the same architecture, but exactly the same 2699mm wheelbase. This limitation has already delivered packaging headaches with the CLA sedan, couched in a body that is longer than the C-Class but smaller inside.
Both Audi and BMW are lining up to attack Mercedes with a range of different lengths, widths and wheelbases from their small-car architectures, with both Bavarians spreading their costs across multiple brands.
While the world has yet to see a single front-drive BMW-badged car, its front-drive future will be far more modular than Mercedes-Benz’s, thanks to an architecture code-named UKL.
BMW’s Board Member in charge of vehicle development, Herbert Deiss, this week let slip that BMW’s upcoming front-drive architecture will spawn up to five different wheelbases.
“The UKL platform will give us four to five wheelbases, but more if we need it,” he admitted.
BMW’s front-drive architecture is planned to sit beneath 20 models, including every next-generation MINI from the Coupe to the Countryman. From the BMW side there will be a full family of 1-Series models (including a sedan, a wagon and a GranTurismo), a full family of 2-Series models (including a coupe, a convertible and an unconfirmed four-door GranCoupe), an SUV to replace the X1, a baby X6-style X2 and a more family friendly car based off the Sports Activity Concept.
With its years of front-drive experience, Audi is also about to see the full benefit of the Volkswagen Group’s modular MQB architecture.
Already fitted in different wheelbases beneath its A3 three- and five-door hatches (pictured), Audi is about to put another version of the MQB platform beneath the A3 sedan, which will make its debut at this month’s New York Motor Show. It will also use the MQB for the A1’s replacement (in three-door, five-door and convertible forms), a new small coupe and the next generation Q3.
Senior sources at Mercedes-Benz admitted at the Geneva Motor Show that its single-wheelbase strategy has left some of its product planners feeling vulnerable, especially with all of the Volkswagen Group’s MQB models performing strongly in comparison tests against the A-Class in Europe.
“When the financial crisis came, we had to economize and prioritise,” a source at Daimler said.
“We weren’t given the budgets to develop or build a variety of wheelbases or track widths for the front-drive architecture. We are working full steam to push back now but this is what we have.”
That analysis of Benz’s single-wheelbase formula for its front-drive family left Mr Deiss, for one puzzled.
“Different wheelbases are not so expensive to do, so it is not the biggest issue, especially with front-drive,” he insisted.
“It’s just a little more metal here or there, but within the confines of the manufacturing facility. We have to remain in a certain weight and length but otherwise it’s not a big issue.”
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Written byMichael Taylor
Our team of independent expert car reviewers and journalists
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