Ken Gratton•23 Apr 2013
NEWS
Volkswagen's modular architecture blazing a trail
Platform policy was conceived in the past but is a pointer for the futureAudi can claim credit for the germination of the idea that has become Volkswagen's MQB modular platform.
And the chief engineer at Audi at that time was none other than Dr Ulrich Hackenberg, now Executive Vice President and member of the board of management for Volkswagen. Dr Hackenberg was in Australia last week for the local launch of the new Golf 7, which is built on the MQB platform. The Volkswagen boss took time out of his schedule – he was passing through Australia en route to China for the Shanghai motor show – to explain to local journalists the principles and history behind the MQB platform.
'MQB' is a German acronym devised by Volkswagen's engineers and refers to a scalable platform suitable for cars with the engine mounted transversely in the front. A transverse engine also lends itself to all-wheel drive applications, and the seven-module platform will eventually underpin vehicles ranging in size from Polo up to a large people mover such as the Touran, which is not sold in Australia. According to Dr Hackenberg the primary reason for migrating to a platform like MQB is it reduces the complexity of vehicle production and cuts costs for the manufacturer. Those cost savings can be passed on to the consumer.
The MQB and other modular platforms are key components of a program "to produce cars efficiently and cost-effectively." Furthermore, the MQB platform is not only of value to the manufacturer, as Dr Hackenberg puts it; it provides "a technical basis to reduce CO2 and [fuel] consumption," which ultimately benefits the consumer.
The VW chief was in on the ground floor of development, from the moment the first-generation Audi A4 hit the streets. After that model A4 reached the market, Audi's Chief Engineer at the time, Dr Ferdinand Piech, remarked that the A4 was too close in size to the contemporaneous Audi 100. Piech was concerned that Audi was losing sales of the 100 (later renamed A6) to the smaller A4. A quick fix for the 100/A6, was to base its next-generation successor on a stretched version of the A4's floorpan.
Volkswagen's Passat of the time followed suit, which locked all three cars into Audi's traditional longitudinal engine mounting design. Hackenberg, who had started with Audi in 1985, moved into the role of chief engineer there in time for the development of the B8-series A4, which continued to be powered by longitudinally-mounted engines.
Led by Dr Martin Winterkorn, the entire Volkswagen Audi Group has begun the slow march to whole-range modular platform architecture, with the MQB first. Vehicles with longitudinally-mounted engines share a different platform (MLB) and high-end cars with longitudinal engines and rear-wheel drive – such as the Porsche Panamera – are built on the MSB platform.
According to Dr Hackenberg, most of the MQB platform can be stretched in length and widened; the only fixed-length module is between the front axle line and the A pillars. Everything else is up for grabs, depending on the requirements of each application. Front overhang can be adjusted, as can the wheelbase behind the A pillars and the rear overhang. So the Jetta can be all Golf as far back as the rear wheels, but adopting a longer module at the rear for its boot. A Golf wagon could use the Jetta's rear boot floor module for added cargo-carrying capacity. Long-wheelbase Jetta models could be developed for the Chinese market with a different module between the firewall and the rear axle. Other examples abound and carry across the majority of the 240 models sold by the 12 different brands under the Volkswagen Audi umbrella.
The flexibility of the MQB platform means that one plant could build multiple models based on the platform. This frees up a plant that might be struggling to keep up with demand, if another plant is producing a car with the same basic floorpan, or some variation, and is underutilised. It means that the Seat plant producing the Leon could be recruited to build the Golf, or the Audi A3 or the Skoda Octavia, in the event that demand is exceeding the supply capabilities of the factories building those respective cars.
By spreading the load, the MQB allows Volkswagen factories to achieve or approach an ideal output Dr Hackenberg suggests would be between 100 and 120 per cent. The overflow to 120 per cent of capacity would be handled by overtime offered to the local workers, but beyond that – on a long-term basis – would indicate a need for another factory to build the car to soak up the added demand.
It's a win/win situation for Volkswagen, but not without certain factors that have to be addressed. The electrical and electronic module for all current MQB cars has to be standardised, for instance, but for every cloud there's a silver lining. In the case of MQB there's the potential to reduce drivetrain complexity. Just as MQB has reduced the development workload for chassis engineers, the same principle can be applied to engines as well.
In the case of the Golf, as one example, engine variants have been reduced from nine in Golf 6, to just four in the latest Golf 7.
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Written byKen Gratton
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