VW's new modular platform could spark a revolution

MQB. Remember those letters. You might be hearing them a lot in the coming years if Ulrich Hackenberg's platform experiment works.

Hackenburg is Volkswagen AG's development leader and he has convinced VW boss Martin Winterkorn to bet a cool $70 billion on the MQB platform, designed and developed for use (with subtle changes) in markets around the world. Take that idea, apply it across dozens of different types of vehicles and designs and brands, and you start to get the general idea. MQB is, according to our sister publication Automotive News Europe, "Volkswagen's rapidly evolving 'mega-platform' strategy." The paper says it is a fundamental rethink of how vehicle platforms can work across dozens of cars. The platform's potential impact on competitors around the globe could be massive.

Big deal, you say; platform sharing isn't new to VW, you scoff -- in fact VW is arguably the master at it. You're right: VW Group vehicles have used the same engines and suspensions, as well as small things such as vent systems and say, clutches, for years.

Hang on a sec. MQB takes the idea further than ever. Indeed, ANE says all the group's small and medium front-wheel-drive models are being designed around MQB. In fact the latest generations of the VW Golf and Audi A3 (on sale now in Europe and here later this year) are the first to use it. Think of it this way: any VW Group product with a transverse mounted engine will likely be on MQB and eventually it will be underneath everything from the VW Up! to the next-generation Passat.

MQB stands for modularen querbau, or modular transverse. That word "modular" is important because it means the platform can be shrunk and stretched depending on the car. Hackenburg says that since the only fixed dimension is the distance from the front axle to the firewall, the wheelbase, width and track can grow or shrink depending on what's needed.

So obviously MQB is more than just parts sharing. MQB's common engine mounts (whether gas, diesel or hybrid) save weight and cost. If those engines and transmissions are all mounted the same, the engineering savings are potentially enormous. Take it yet another step: VW Group plants could have VW, Seat, Skoda and Audi models on the same assembly line, saving even more dough. VW says eventually the MQB platform will underpin more than 40 Audis, VWs, Skodas and Seats.

Our man on the ground in Europe, Greg Kable, told me the idea is a "game changer. No automotive platform has offered so much flexibility," he says. "Not only has it started a trend back toward transversely mounted engines in larger cars, it goes from a city car all the way up to that SUV VW showed in Detroit."

This is a project Hackenberg has been thinking about for an amazing 30 years and clearly the potential is enormous. In fact it is helping put VW at the top of the global sales charts "several years ahead of its 2018 target," according to ANE. "It could also make VW one of the most profitable carmakers in the world," the paper says.

Needless to say other automakers are taking note, including Toyota and Ford, according to the paper. One Ford exec said "we'd be crazy not to" look at it.

VW began working on MQB in 2007. It will be more fully implemented over the next four years. Perhaps not coincidentally VW is expected to announce a record profit of $30 billion before the Geneva motor show in early March.

The risk? As ANE points out, if just a single part fails, one possibly being used in millions of cars, VW could have a massive global recall on its hands.

Meanwhile, it's fascinating, and the world's auto industry is watching.

By Wes Raynal