Volkswagen took the first step towards transformation after releasing its 2030 NEW AUTO strategy last year to accelerate its transformation into a software-driven mobility service provider.
Recently, Volkswagen said that in order to successfully transform into a technology company, it is making structural adjustments to its technology research and development department in Wolfsburg.
"In the R&D process and organizational management, we focus on the systems and functions of the vehicle rather than the components, which makes technology development more efficient and interconnected. In addition, we give priority to software, and in the future, when the basic software architecture is ready, the vehicle project cycle will be shortened from 54 months to 40 months, shortening by 25%. ”
Thomas Ulbrich, a member of the Volkswagen Passenger Car Brand Management Board, who oversees research and development, said that through this year's Sandkamp R&D center project in Wolfsburg, the transformation of the Volkswagen Group will gradually emerge.
Reduced development cycle time by approx. 25%
From the perspective of research and development, the development of automobiles can be divided into three stages.
In the 1990s, automotive R&D focused primarily on components; in the early 21st century, as vehicle functions and electronics increased, vehicle connectivity began to play an increasingly important role; and now and in the future, vehicles have become part of the user ecosystem, while seamlessly interconnecting with systems other than vehicles, and software has become the core of everything.
In volkswagen's 2030 NEW AUTO strategy, CARIAD, the automotive software company of the Volkswagen Group, is the executor of the software segment. According to the plan, CARIAD will develop an industry-leading software platform in 2025 as the main architecture for all of the Group's vehicle models.
However, in the meantime, it is necessary to redesign the vehicle development process to enhance vehicle connectivity to fit perfectly into the digital ecosystem, while continuously improving the user experience. To this end, the Volkswagen Group's new R&D process will focus on the functions and systems of the vehicle rather than components, focusing on the functions and systems of the vehicle rather than components, and ensuring that the systems and components are properly configured and designed, and finally all functions are seamlessly integrated.
According to the Volkswagen Group, under the new R&D process, the Volkswagen Group can shorten the vehicle development cycle by 25%, and in the future, the vehicle project cycle will be shortened from 54 months to 40 months. In addition, through close cooperation with the production department, its technology and development department aims to reduce the production time per vehicle to 10 hours.
Training to enhance the future skills of employees
The improvement of vehicle R&D standards relies on the new R&D center. Over the next five years, Volkswagen will invest around €800 million in the Sandkamp R&D center, which will accommodate more than 4,000 employees in its project center and integration center.
Among them, the project center will integrate design, conceptualization, user experience, product strategy, model series, technical project management and other functions, and also accommodate the staff of purchasing, finance, production planning, quality assurance and sales departments; the integrated center will ensure the efficient operation of cross-departmental approval and decision-making, innovative test simulation facilities and open design collaboration areas.
As the connected R&D processes in technology R&D become more focused on vehicle systems and functions, Volkswagen is also conducting targeted training for employees to better prepare them for the digital age.
It is understood that the Volkswagen Group currently has hundreds of employees who have received the training required for new job areas of technology research and development, and by 2030, the Volkswagen Group will have about 4,000 employees learning new skills to adapt to the new jobs, while 6,000 to 8,000 employees will receive extensive training to enhance their professional capabilities.
Training programs include short-term training to enhance specific professional functions, as well as large-scale retraining. To date, the Volkswagen Group's longest training lasts 180 days, providing employees with the opportunity to work in new areas, such as skilled sheet metal workers who will have the opportunity to become experts in vehicle engineering commissioning.
Volkswagen's electrification transformation is beginning to take shape
With a clear route and R&D departments and personnel ready, it seems that the Volkswagen Group only needs to run at full strength in this game of "betting" on the future.
The presence of the SSP (Scalable System Platform) is the exclusive platform created by the Volkswagen Group for the era of electrification, and its existence will further consolidate Volkswagen's leading position in the field of vehicle platforms.
However, unlike the general platform, SSP is more like an architecture, including not only physical architecture but also electronic architecture, is a collection of modules of the same combined interface, through their combination called different SSPs, such as SSP1, SSP2, etc. to adapt to different brands and products, in order to maximize product differentiation.
On this basis, more than 40 million vehicles are expected to be built on the SSP platform, and Trinity, which will be the first model of the SSP platform in 2026, will be set at a target production time of 10 hours, which may be the first product after volkswagen's research and development cycle has been shortened.
To this end, Volkswagen recently announced that it will invest 2 billion euros to build a new plant to undertake the manufacturing of the new electric vehicle Trinity. It is understood that the new plant will be near Volkswagen's Wolfsburg plant and will be completed as early as spring 2023.
However, Trinity will not replace the existing ID series products, but exist independently as a higher-end product, but the positioning will still be lower than the SSP platform model planned by Audi. Of course, some of the more advanced technologies will also be "delegated" to the ID series, such as volkswagen VW.OS 2.0 version of the car engine system.
By 2026, the Volkswagen brand will invest around EUR 18 billion in areas of future trends such as electric vehicles, hybrids and digitalization. As part of the global electrification offensive, pure electric models will account for more than 70 percent of Volkswagen's sales in Europe and more than 50 percent in China and the United States. To achieve this, Volkswagen will introduce at least one new pure electric model every year.