Porsche Cajun - to be engineered by Audi
VAG is rationalising its product development with Audi building platforms for SUVs and Porsche for sports cars and luxury saloons.
The quest to be the largest car maker on the planet is in full swing at VAG. And being the biggest car maker and, more importantly, a profitable car maker as well, means rationalising your costs wherever it’s possible without compromising your product.
So VAG are on a quest to rationalise product development and to utilise their chassis across their broad range of marques. Which is a very sensible move from VAG, even if it will lead to cries of ‘sacrilige’ from aficienados of marques under its control.
What we know so far is that Porsche have been entrusted with developing the platform for sports cars and luxury saloons across the VAG group. That means Porsche will develop the modular standard matrix that will underpin not just the next generation Panamera but probably the Lamborghini Estoque and a new, entry-level Bentley.
Porsche will also develop a new sports car platform that will be capable of being utilised as front, rear and mid-engined configurations for Porsche, Audi and Lamborghini.
As for Audi, it is tasked with developing ‘Large SUV’ product platforms, which basically means anything from Audi Q5 upwards. That means that Audi will be developing the new Porsche Cajun as well as the next Cayenne and future Q5 and Q7 models. And if Lamborghini do have a brainstorm and decide to build an SUV, it will be an Audi under the skin.
The beauty of all this platform sharing is cost saving. Model development will be 20% less expensive and 30% less time consuming. It also means that the development of new, niche models becomes simpler and more cost-effective.
Which will suit Audi – and it’s quest to fill every niche within a niche – down to the ground.
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