Volkswagen opens electric platform to third parties

The Volkswagen Group is opening its Modular Electric Toolkit (MEB) to other manufacturers.

It says the purpose is to achieve a significant reduction in the cost of e-mobility through the widest possible deployment of the MEB and the associated economies of scale, thus enabling broad access to individual mobility to continue in future.

The Volkswagen Group is currently projecting a first wave of some 15 million pure electric vehicles based on the MEB.

e.GO Mobile AG based in Aachen, Germany, is to be the world’s first external partner to use the electric platform to launch further electric vehicles in addition to Volkswagen’s model range.

A dedicated vehicle project is already being planned. Volkswagen is highlighting the MEB’s variability even for small series with the ID. Buggy on show at the Geneva International Motor Show.

Dr. Herbert Diess, CEO of Volkswagen AG, said: “Our Modular Transverse Toolkit proved we are platform experts. Over 100 million of our vehicles are based on that particular platform.

“With the MEB platform, we are now transferring this successful concept to the electric era and opening it to other carmakers. The MEB is to establish itself as the standard for e-mobility.

“I am delighted that e.GO has become the first partner to use our electric platform as the basis for a jointly-defined vehicle project.”

Prof. Dr. Günther Schuh, CEO of e.GO Mobile AG, added: “We are extremely pleased the Volkswagen Group offered us this cooperation.

“We can contribute e.GO’s agile product development and our strength in building small-series vehicles based on extruded aluminum spaceframes. And the MEB platform will make us faster, more robust and cost-efficient.”